Data Source: For information about the data visit the data section of the report. (Graph: Peter Wagner & Bernadette Rabuy, 2017)

This graph originally appeared in Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2017.

Chart showing the 5,487 people civilly committed in 16 states and the federal system. The largest number are in California ~~ unsurprising, given that it is the largest state in the country ~~ followed by Minnesota, a state that is seven times smaller and that has one of the lowest prison incarceration rates in the nation.

These facilities and the confinement there are technically civil, but in reality are quite like prisons and run by state prison systems.

In 2015, the civil commitment systems in Minnesota and Missouri were both declared unconstitutional because they failed to release people and were not regularly assessing if continued detention was warranted.