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In 2020, the imprisonment rate was 358 per 100,000 U.S. residents, the lowest since 1992. From 2010 to 2020, the sentenced imprisonment rate for U.S. residents fell 37% among blacks; 32% among Hispanics; 32% among Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders; 26% among whites; and 25% among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Prisoners in 2020 – Statistical Tables - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Imprisonment rates of U.S. residents, based on sentenced prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, per 100,000 U.S. residents, by race or ethnicity, 2010–2020
About 167 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents were incarcerated in local jails at midyear 2020, down from 224 per 100,000 in 2019. The number of persons admitted to local jails also decreased from 2019 to 2020, from 10.3 million to 8.7 million. This 16% decline was more than six times the 2.5% decrease in jail admissions each year from 2010 to 2019.
In 2020, the imprisonment rate was 358 per 100,000 U.S. residents, the lowest since 1992. From 2010 to 2020, the sentenced imprisonment rate for U.S. residents fell 37% among blacks; 32% among Hispanics; 32% among Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacifc Islanders; 26% among whites; and 25% among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
State and federal prisons held an estimated 1,311,100 people at midyear 2020—down 124,400, or 9 percent, from 2019. Prisons declined by an additional 61,800 people in late 2020, bringing the total prison population to 1,249,300 people, a 13 percent decline from 2019 to late 2020 (the end of September or beginning of October).
About 1 in 47 adult U.S. residents (2.1%) were under some form of correctional supervision at the end of 2020, a decrease from 1 in 40 (2.5%) at the end of 2019. This report summarizes data on populations supervised by probation or parole agencies and those incarcerated in state or federal prisons or in the custody of local jails.
States. Vera researchers estimated the national jail population using a sample of 1,558 jail jurisdictions and the national prison population based on a sample of 49 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. An electronic version of this report is posted on Vera’s website at vera.org/people-in-jail-and-prison-in-2020. For more information
