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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.
At yearend 2020, an estimated 5,500,600 persons were under the supervision of adult correctional systems in the United States, 11% fewer than at the same time the previous year (figure 1).1 This was the first time since 1996 that the total correctional population dropped to less than 5.6 million.
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.
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.
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.
The number of people incarcerated in state and federal prisons and local jails in the United States dropped from around 2.1 million in 2019 to 1.8 million by mid-2020—a 14 percent decrease. This decline held through the fall. This represents a 21 percent decline from a peak of 2.3 million people in prison and jail in 2008.
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 this report, contact Jacob Kang-Brown, senior research associ-
