State prisons in America touch millions of people every day—over a million people are incarcerated in them (PDF) and 180,000 corrections officers work in them. Despite their reach, prisons remain among the least understood public institutions, and of the research that does exist, few studies have recognized the people with direct experience as critical to this work. Partnering with five state prisons and five local research institutions, the Urban Institute’s Prison Research and Innovation Initiative aimed to better understand and improve prison living and working conditions. This report summarizes findings from three waves of climate surveys administered to thousands of incarcerated people and corrections staff in the five states by the local research partners.

Why This Matters

Without systematic data on prison living and working conditions according to incarcerated people and corrections staff, prisons are limited in their ability to implement data-driven decisionmaking to improve these conditions. This research offers firsthand insights into incarcerated people’s and corrections staff’s perceptions of living and working conditions, drawing on surveys jointly designed and analyzed by incarcerated people, corrections staff, and each state’s local research partners. The data reveal critical gaps in trust, fairness, and well-being—issues that directly affect prison outcomes and public safety. Understanding these perspectives is essential for policymakers, corrections leaders, advocates, and researchers working toward reforms that address challenges in prison living and working conditions that the surveys uncover.

Key Takeaways

This research highlights significant gaps in the perceptions of incarcerated people and corrections staff across three survey waves, particularly regarding prisons’ purpose, living conditions, safety, and COVID-19 communication. Key findings include the following:

• The purpose of prisons: Whereas staff increasingly emphasized rehabilitation, public safety, and crime prevention as the purposes of prisons across survey waves, incarcerated people decreasingly emphasized them. Both groups consistently agreed that punishment was at least one core purpose of the prison system.
• Living conditions: Corrections staff perceived incarcerated people’s living conditions more favorably than incarcerated people. For example, 60 percent of incarcerated people overall disagreed they received enough to eat, whereas staff overall disagreement never surpassed 40 percent.
• Limited preparation for release: Most incarcerated people and corrections staff agreed that their prisons fall short in preparing people for release.
• Safety and respect: Over 60 percent of incarcerated people disagreed or strongly disagreed that staff made them feel safe, and less than 4 percent strongly agreed they felt safe raising concerns with staff. Further, overall agreement among staff that staff treat incarcerated people with respect was consistently 25 percentage points or more higher than among incarcerated people.
• Staff job satisfaction: Over 90 percent of staff agreed that their work enables them to make a positive impact on the lives of incarcerated people, and a similar percentage agreed that they take pride in their job.
• Support for staff: Many staff felt that their prison’s policies and practices could do more to support staff well-being, though this number improved markedly over the course of the project. Between waves 1 and 3, staff agreement that prison leadership does everything possible to keep staff safe increased 25 or more percentage points. Further, the share of staff who agreed that their prison’s policies and practices support staff well-being increased 23 percentage points.
• Staff stress levels: Stress remained high among corrections staff across the three survey waves. Seventy-five percent of staff said coworkers “often” or “always” showed signs of stress, and the share only fell to 68 percent by wave 3.

How We Did It

Local research partners surveyed incarcerated people and corrections staff across five state prisons between 2021 and 2024. In total, they administered 28 climate surveys over three waves, yielding 5,268 responses from incarcerated people and 1,750 from staff. Surveys included “cross-site” questions, asked in all facilities, across seven domains, such as prison conditions, the purpose of prisons, and interactions between incarcerated people and staff. Responses were anonymous and not linked across waves. Urban conducted analysis of these surveys to produce cross-site findings.