SJC Exchange Library

Originally posted by Wanda Bertram on 06/12/2025

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Hi everyone,

President Trump frequently makes statements that overstate his-and the federal government's-direct control over who is arrested and incarcerated (as well as the conditions they face behind bars). To shed some clarity on the understandable confusion over what the federal government does and does not control, the Prison Policy Initiative published a resource yesterday that explains where the federal government's powers traditionally start and stop when it comes to incarceration.

Our briefing discusses:

• The relatively small size and scope of the federal prison system compared to state and local systems, which incarcerate far more people;
• How the president can use federal spending, agency appointments, and enforcement of civil rights laws to influence state and local criminal legal policy;
• The Attorney General's discretion over what cases the Dept. of Justice pursues, and historic norms around how the office has used this discretion; and
• How federal courts and Congress are able to influence state and local criminal legal systems.

Of course, we live in decidedly not-normal times, which makes it hard to predict what is going to happen in the numerous gray areas where different parts of the government overlap. But whether developments on federal policy stay within traditional boundaries or trample past them, we hope this will be a handy reference for anyone looking to explain - or just double check - the relationship between federal and state/local criminal legal policy.

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Wanda Bertram
Communications Strategist
Prison Policy Initiative
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