HELP US END MASS INCARCERATION
The Prison Policy Initiative uses research, advocacy, and organizing to dismantle mass incarceration. We’ve been in this movement for 23 years, thanks to individual donors like you.
Can you help us sustain this work?
Thank you,
Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
Can you help us sustain this work?
Thank you,
Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
Population size & incarceration rate
- U.S. incarceration rate compared to that of other founding NATO members (Created: 2024)
- By state: Prison and jail incarceration rates, populations, and jail conviction status (Created: 2024)
- State policy drives mass incarceration (numbers) (Created: 2024)
- State policy drives mass incarceration (rates per 100,000) (Created: 2024)
- How many people are locked up in the United States? (2024) (Created: 2024)
- Racial and ethnic disparities in correctional facilities (Created: 2024)
- How many women are locked up in the United States? (2024) (Created: 2024)
- Prison growth continued through 2023 in many states (Created: 2023)
- How much higher are Black incarceration rates than white? (Created: 2023)
- Incarceration rates by race and ethnicity in prisons (2021) and jails (2019), by state (Created: 2023)
- Pre-trial detention in different parts of the justice system (Created: 2023)
- Federal correctional systems overview (Created: 2023)
- Involuntary commitment in the justice system (Created: 2023)
- Correctional control extends far beyond incarceration (Created: 2023)
- Immigration detention and incarceration by different agencies (Created: 2023)
- Number of people in local jail over time, by conviction status (Created: 2023)
- Only 7% of confined people are held in private prisons (Created: 2023)
- Despite reforms, drug offenses are still a defining characteristic of the federal system (Created: 2023)
- Most people in Indian Country jails are locked up for property, drug, and public order charges (Created: 2023)
- How many women are locked up in the United States? (2023) (Created: 2023)
- Five Montana counties are home to less than half of the state's residents, but more than 67% of the state's prison population (Created: 2022)
- In Billings, the North Side and South Side communities are home to only 7% of residents, but 34% of the city's imprisoned population (Created: 2022)
- Three Missoula neighborhoods are home to a disproportionate number of people in state prison (Created: 2022)
- One Great Falls community is home to 10% of the city's residents, but more than a third of the city's incarcerated population (Created: 2022)
- Imprisonment rates vary greatly between Billings neighborhoods (Created: 2022)
- Six Connecticut cities are home to more than 50% of the state's incarcerated population, but only 17% of the state's total population (Created: 2022)
- Every Connecticut county is home to hundreds of people in prisons, while three counties are home to thousands of people in prison (Created: 2022)
- High neighborhood incarceration rates in Bridgeport are concentrated in the south of the city (Created: 2022)
- Neighborhood incarceration rates in Hartford are higher than many other places across the state of Connecticut (Created: 2022)
- Stamford has one of the lowest incarceration rates in Connecticut, but some neighborhoods have rates far above the city average (Created: 2022)
- Waterbury has one of the highest city incarceration rates in the state, but a handful of neighborhoods are the most affected (Created: 2022)
- Hartford imprisonment rates vary greatly by neighborhood (Created: 2022)
- Significant neighborhood differences in incarceration trends exist in Stamford (Created: 2022)
- Imprisonment rates vary across Pennsylvania, but every part of the state has residents locked up in state prison (Created: 2022)
- Seven Pennsylvania counties imprison more than 300 people per 100,000 county residents (Created: 2022)
- North Philadelphia is home to the city's highest imprisonment rates (Created: 2022)
- High imprisonment rates are concentrated in a handful of Pittsburgh neighborhoods (Created: 2022)
- Imprisonment rates vary greatly by neighborhood in Philadelphia (Created: 2022)
- While some Pittsburgh neighborhoods imprison virtually no one, others have exorbitantly high imprisonment rates (Created: 2022)
- Incarceration in Delaware is not confined to the most populous cities: people living all over the state are locked up at high rates (Created: 2022)
- Delaware residence data reveals patterns of high incarceration rates in every state legislative district (Created: 2022)
- Incarceration rates vary greatly between communities in Delaware's four largest cities (Created: 2022)
- Delaware's highest incarceration rates are concentrated in a handful of cities and towns (Created: 2022)
- High county imprisonment rates are clustered in a handful of northern and central California counties (Created: 2022)
- In the city of Los Angeles, the highest imprisonment rates are concentrated in southern neighborhoods (Created: 2022)
- San Francisco has one of the state's lowest city imprisonment rates, but some communities have rates far about the city average (Created: 2022)
- Imprisonment rates vary greatly by neighborhood in Los Angeles (Created: 2022)
- Across San Francisco, imprisonment rates vary greatly by neighborhood (Created: 2022)
- Four Nevada counties send more people per capita to prison than the rest of the state (Created: 2022)
- High rates of imprisonment are concentrated in few Las Vegas communities (Created: 2022)
- High rates of imprisonment are concentrated in the central communities of the city of Reno (Created: 2022)
- High rates of imprisonment are concentrated in the southeastern corner of Las Vegas (Created: 2022)
- Most people in state prison [in Colorado] are from the three largest cities: Denver, Aurora, and Colorado Springs (Created: 2022)
- Ten Colorado counties are home to 88% of Colorado residents in state prison (Created: 2022)
- County imprisonment rates show that incarceration in Colorado is not confined to the most populous cities (Created: 2022)
- Imprisonment rates in Denver vary by neighborhood, with the highest rates clustered in northern Denver and west of I-25 (Created: 2022)
- In Aurora, Colorado, high rates of imprisonment are concentrated in northwestern neighborhoods (Created: 2022)
- Miles apart, Denver neighborhood imprisonment rates vary greatly (Created: 2022)
- Aurora neighborhoods across town have vastly different imprisonment rates (Created: 2022)
- The areas with the highest incarceration rates [in Maryland] are Baltimore City and the southern Eastern Shore (Created: 2022)
- Baltimore neighborhoods have vastly different imprisonment rates (Created: 2022)
- Even two miles apart, neighborhood experiences of incarceration [in Baltimore] vary greatly (Created: 2022)
- Six New Jersey counties are home to more than half of the state's imprisoned population (Created: 2022)
- High rates of imprisonment are concentrated in southwest Newark (Created: 2022)
- More than half of people in state prison from Jersey City come from only five neighborhoods (Created: 2022)
- Newark neighborhoods divided by a single street have very different rates of imprisonment (Created: 2022)
- Upstate [New York] counties send the most people to prison per capita (Created: 2022)
- NYC neighborhoods have vastly different imprisonment rates (Created: 2022)
- People in state prison from Syracuse come from primarily five neighborhoods in western Syracuse (Created: 2022)
- Buffalo neighborhoods have vastly different imprisonment rates (Created: 2022)
- Even two miles apart, neighborhood experiences of incarceration [in Syracuse] vary greatly (Created: 2022)
- Among Virginia's 95 counties and 38 cities, 26 are missing at least 1% of their population to incarceration (Created: 2022)
- Thirteen Richmond neighborhoods have more than 2.5% of their residents locked up in state prisons and jails (Created: 2022)
- Nine Norfolk neighborhoods have incarceration rates more than twice as high as the city's incarceration rate (Created: 2022)
- Arlington has one of the lowest incarceration rates in Virginia, but some neighborhoods have rates far above the city average (Created: 2022)
- Across Richmond, neighborhood incarceration rates vary greatly (Created: 2022)
- Every county in Washington state is imprisoning people, with the highest imprisonment rates in some of the less populated counties (Created: 2022)
- Twelve Vancouver neighborhoods have imprisonment rates higher than the citywide rate of 409 per 100,000 (Created: 2022)
- Two Spokane neighborhoods are home to a disproportionate number of people in state prison (Created: 2022)
- One neighborhood is home to only 7% of Tacoma's residents, but is home to 33% of the people in prison from the city (Created: 2022)
- Imprisonment rates vary greatly between Spokane neighborhoods (Created: 2022)
- State policy drives women's incarceration growth - rates (Created: 2022)
- State policy drives women's incarceration growth - raw numbers (Created: 2022)
- What pandemic-related changes caused prison and jail populations to drop in 2020? (Created: 2022)
- Mass incarceration directly impacts millions of people (Created: 2022)
- How many people are locked up in the United States? (2022) (Created: 2022)
- Local Jails: The real scandal is the churn (Created: 2022)
- The prison population drops during the pandemic are the result of fewer admissions, not increasing releases (Created: 2022)
- After rapidly dropping their populations at the very start of the pandemic, jails have allowed their populations to creep back up during most of 2021 (Created: 2022)
- States released fewer people during 2020 than in 2019 (Created: 2022)
- Many state prison populations are ticking back up despite the ongoing pandemic (Created: 2022)
- State prison populations haven't dropped nearly enough during the pandemic, any many are actually growing in 2021 (Created: 2021)
- The average number of people released from state prisons each month has been falling since 2019, despite the urgent need to decarcerate during the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- Racial disparities in incarceration rates by sex, 2010 (Created: 2021)
- Comparing the incarceration rates of U.S. states to other, similar, countries (Created: 2021)
- Few states made significant efforts to reduce prison populations (Created: 2021)
- The United States incarcerates more of its population than any other nation - including nations that have similar or higher rates of crime (Created: 2021)
- From 2008 to 2018, women's jail populations grew while men's jail populations shrank (Created: 2021)
- Pretrial detention rates are climbing fastest in rural counties despite dropping slightly in urban counties (Created: 2021)
- Jail populations dropped more in cities that avoided increasing jail budgets (Created: 2021)
- Jail populations dropped by 25% early in the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- The U.S. incarceration rate in jails alone exceeds the total incarceration rate of its peers (Created: 2021)
- Lesbian and bisexual women are overrepresented in prisons and local jails (Created: 2021)
- Parole boards held fewer hearings and failed to say "yes" more often, ultimately approving fewer people for parole during the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- More people were released from prison in 2019 than during the pandemic (Created: 2021)
- Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are incarcerated at three times the rate of straight people (Created: 2021)
- While some state prison populations continue to decline, efforts to reduce prison populations have slowed and even reversed in some states (Created: 2020)
- Racial disparities in men's imprisonment persist across all ages (Created: 2020)
- Prison population drops in many states slowed or reversed in July, August, and September, despite the continued spread of COVID-19 (Created: 2020)
- Racial disparities in prison incarceration rates, by sex, 2018 (Created: 2020)
- U.S. incarceration rates by race (Created: 2020)
- Compassionate release was never designed to release large numbers of people (Created: 2020)
- High imprisonment communities have lower 5th grade ELA scores (Created: 2020)
- High imprisonment communities have lower 5th grade math scores (Created: 2020)
- High imprisonment communities have higher youth asthma rates (Created: 2020)
- High imprisonment communities have higher poverty rates (Created: 2020)
- High imprisonment communities have higher unemployment rates (Created: 2020)
- 1 out of 5 prisoners in the world is incarcerated in the U.S. (Created: 2020)
- How many youths are locked up in the United States? (Created: 2019)
- Long sentences for violence account for over half of all state prison growth from 1980 to 2010 (Created: 2019)
- Incarceration pie chart and correctional control pie chart by state (Created: 2018)
- Incarceration growth in 80's and 90's dwarfs recent declines (Created: 2018)
- Comparing the women's incarceration rates of U.S. states to other, similar, countries (Created: 2018)
- Incarceration for drug offense in different parts of the justice system (Created: 2018)
- Women's state prison populations have grown faster than men's (Created: 2018)
- Women's prison incarceration rate: select states and all 50 states (Created: 2018)
- Women's and men's incarceration numbers and rates by state, 1978-2015 (Created: 2018)
- Local jail population, 1940-2015 (Created: 2017)
- Local jail incarceration rate, 1940-2015 (Created: 2017)
- District of Columbia prison and jail incarceration rates, 1978-2015 (Created: 2017)
- District of Columbia prison and jail populations (Created: 2017)
- What's actually driving jail growth? (Created: 2017)
- Jail and prison incarceration rates by state, 1978-2015 (Created: 2017)
- Jail conviction status, by state, 1978-2013 (Created: 2017)
- Jail and prison populations, by state, 1978-2015 (Created: 2017)
- States vary greatly in how they use correctional control (Created: 2016)
- Jail population by conviction status, 1983-2014 (Created: 2016)
- National imprisonment rate by age, 1993-2013 (Created: 2016)
- Distribution of monthly incomes for women unable to meet bail and non-incarcerated women (Created: 2016)
- Types of correctional control by size (Created: 2015)
- Women's Incarceration Rate: United States 1910-2014 (Created: 2015)
- Comparing Iowa's incarceration rate to other states, 1978-2013 (Created: 2015)
- Imprisonment rates in Texas, 1983-2013 (Created: 2015)
- Admissions to and releases from Texas correctional facilities, 1983-2013 (Created: 2015)
- Racial/ethnic parity in U.S. correctional facilities, 2005 (Created: 2015)
- High Incarceration Communities in Baltimore (Created: 2015)
- Higher Incarceration Communities in Baltimore (Created: 2015)
- Highest Incarceration Community in Baltimore (Created: 2015)
- Maryland Taxpayers Spend $288M on Corrections in Baltimore (Created: 2015)
- Maryland Taxpayer Spending on Corrections in Baltimore by Community Statistical Area (Created: 2015)
- State prison incarceration rate: Select states and all 50 states (Created: 2014)
- Regional state prison incarceration rates, 1977-2010 (Created: 2014)
- State prison incarceration rate, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- Local jail incarceration rate, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- Federal prison incarceration rate, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- State prison population, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- Local jail population, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- Federal prison population, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- Incarceration rates by state, 1978-2012 (Created: 2014)
- Incarceration rates by race/ethnicity and racial disparities by state, 2010 (Created: 2014)
- Differential incarceration rates in Holyoke, Springfield and Massachusetts (Created: 2012)
- Incarceration rate, 1925-2008 (Created: 2010)
- Maryland and Baltimore City: Population, Prisoners and Prison Cells (Created: 2010)
- Connecticut and Hartford: Population, Prisoners and Prison Cells (Created: 2010)
- Connecticut state incarceration rate, 1973-2008 (Created: 2010)
- Connecticut and New Haven: Population, Prisoners and Prison Cells (Created: 2010)
- Illinois state prisoners, 1970-2000 (Created: 2010)
- State prisoners in other state's prisons or in federal prisons (Created: 2010)
- Pennsylvania state prisoners, 1980-2000 (Created: 2009)
- U.S. Prison Proliferation, 1900-2000 (Created: 2005)
- Blacks are overrepresented in Franklin County, MA jail (Created: 2004)
- Racial disparities in incarceration by state, 2000 (Created: 2004)
- Incarceration rates by race, 2001 (Created: 2004)
- Where is New York's incarcerated population? (Created: 2004)
- Males are overrepresented in prisons and jails (Created: 2004)
- State prisoners in private prisons, 1999 (Created: 2004)
- State prisoners in local jails, 1999 (Created: 2004)
- Adults under criminal justice system control (Created: 2004)
- Disparities between Black and White incarceration rates, 2001 (Created: 2004)
- Number of prisoners per country (Created: 2004)
- Percent of the world's prisoners held by each country (Created: 2004)
- Countries with incarceration rates under 150 per 100,000 (Created: 2004)
- Global Incarceration Rates (Created: 2004)
- Pennsylvania's Institutional Populations 1982-2003 (Created: 2003)
- Incarceration rate, 1925-2001 (Created: 2003)
- Prisoners per 100,000 residents, emphasizing the low rate through the 1980 U.S. Census (Created: 2003)
- African American male population in higher education and in prison, 2000 (Created: 2003)
- Blacks overrepresented in Ohio prisons (Created: 2003)
- Racial disparities in North Carolina incarceration per 100,000 population (Created: 2003)
- Maryland incarceration rates by county and prison locations, 2000 (Created: 2003)
- North Carolina incarceration rates by county (Created: 2003)
- North Carolina state prisons (Created: 2003)
- North Carolina state prisons authorized for construction (Created: 2003)
- North Carolina state prisons built since 1990 (Created: 2003)
- North Carolina state prisons under construction (Created: 2003)
- Pennsylvania incarceration rates and prison locations by county, 2000 (Created: 2003)
- Growth in the New York State prison and drug prisoner populations (Created: 2002)
- The one-day count of youth in juvenile justice "residential placement" facilities has dropped by over 60 percent since 2000 (Created: 1969)
