Section II: Incarceration & Its Consequences

Penal Control in the U.S.

• Number of adults on probation, 2001236: 3,932,751
• Number of adults on parole, 2001237: 732,351
• Total population under control of the penal system (prison, jail, probation and parole) in 2001238: 6,594,000
• Population of the United States, 2001239: 285,317,559
• Probability of a U.S. resident being under some form of penal control240: 1 in 43
• Number in 1980, per 100,000 U.S. population, under some form of penal control241: 812
• Number in 2000, per 100,000 U.S. population, under some form of penal control242: 2,298
• Number in 1950, per 100,000 Soviet population, imprisoned in Stalin's gulags243: 1,423

Incarceration in the U.S.

• Number of people in U.S. prisons and jails, 2001244: 1,965,495
• Number of prisoners in U.S. federal prisons, 2001245: 140,741
• Number of prisoners in U.S. state prisons, 2001246: 1,187,322
• Number of inmates in local jails, 2001247: 631,240

• Average annual percent growth, U.S. population, 1990-2000248: 1.24%
• Average annual percent growth, U.S. incarcerated population, 1990-2000249: 5.35%
• Average annual percent growth, U.S. federal prison population, 1990-2000250: 8.6%

• Number of prisoners per 100,000 population, 1925251: 79
• Number of prisoners per 100,000 population, 1980252: 139
• Number of prisoners per 100,000 population, 2000253: 478
• Number of prisoners and jail inmates per 100,000 population, 2000254: 699

Federal Prisons

• Number of federal prisoners, 1970255: 21,266
• Percent of federal prisoners that are incarcerated for a drug offense, 1970256: 16.3%
• Number of federal prisoners, 2001257: 125,904
• Percent of federal prisoners that are incarcerated for a drug offense, 2001258: 56.3%
• Average annual growth in federal prison population, 1995-2001259: 8.6%
• Number of prisoners the federal Bureau of Prisons is planning to hold in 2009260: 211,516

This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative. Footnotes for all facts are available in the print version.