Search results
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.
11 sty 2022 · Nationwide, states and the federal government actually released fewer people from prison in 2020 than in 2019. The decrease in the incarcerated population was not related to releases, but rather the 40% drop in prison admissions and 16% drop in jail admissions.
14 gru 2021 · Nine states showed decreases in the number of persons in prison of at least 20% from 2019 to 2020. The prison populations of California, Texas, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons each declined by more than 22,500 from 2019 to 2020, accounting for 33% of the total prison population decrease.
22 sty 2022 · Deaths increased 46% in prisons from 2019 to 2020, 32% among people on parole and 6% among people on probation.
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
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.
Vera Institute of Justice researchers collected data on the number of people in local jails and state and federal prisons at both midyear and fall 2020 to provide timely information on how incarceration is changing in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.