Data Source: Compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative, using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Prisoner Statistics series. (Graph: Peter Wagner, 2016)

This graph originally appeared in Some private prisons are, um, public.

Since 1999, private prisons and local jails have housed roughly the same number of those serving state and federal prison sentences. But when those interested in justice reform talk about profiting off of mass incarceration, they almost always leave local jails out of the conversation.