Who we lock up and why
BarNone is a nonpartisan research and policy organization tracking incarceration in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. We turn public data into plain-language findings that lawmakers, reporters, and communities can use.
The Northwest by the numbers
Three neighbors, three very different choices
Idaho, Washington, and Oregon share borders, families, and history. They do not share an approach to incarceration.
Idaho locks up a larger share of its people than any independent democratic country on earth.
About 10,000 people are held in Idaho prisons built for just over 8,200. The overflow goes to county jails and out-of-state beds.
People incarcerated per 100,000 residents
Latest research
Research briefs
Plain-language findings with every number sourced and dated, written for lawmakers, reporters, and communities.
New · Research Brief No. 2
Long and life sentences in Washington
Washington imprisons fewer people per resident than its neighbors, but nearly half of the people in its prisons are serving more than 10 years or life, and most have no way to have their sentence reviewed.
Read the briefWhat we do
Research, policy, and people
Research
Data, findings, briefs
We analyze sentencing, prison, and jail data across three states and publish what we find in plain language, with every number sourced and dated.
Policy
Boise, Olympia, Salem
We brief legislators and agencies, testify on bills that change who goes to prison and for how long, and share our tools so others can do the same.
People
Convenings and reentry
We bring people with lived experience, officials, and advocates into the same room, and we keep a reentry directory for people coming home.
Our approach
Evidence over ideology
We follow the data wherever it goes. When a policy keeps people safe at lower cost, we say so. When it fills prisons without making anyone safer, we say that too.
We work with lawmakers of every party. The best answers to crime and incarceration are usually found in communities: a job, a home, treatment that works, and people who show up. Our research asks whether the Northwest is investing in them.
Reentry help
Coming home? Start here.
We keep a short, checked list of reentry resources for Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, along with guides to fair chance hiring and clearing a record.
About BarNone
Founded in Boise in 2018. Working across the Northwest.
BarNone began by welcoming people home from prison in Idaho, with release parties and the Idaho Reentry Summit series. Those years taught us that the hardest problems in reentry start long before release, in the laws that decide who goes to prison and for how long.
Today BarNone, Inc. is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) research and policy organization studying those decisions across Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.