United States
Statistics
How Many People are Incarcerated in the US?
The U.S. doesn’t have one criminal legal system; instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold nearly 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,277 juvenile correctional facilities, 133 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories — at a system-wide cost of at least $182 billion each year.
This report offers some much-needed clarity by piecing together the data about this country’s disparate systems of confinement. It provides a detailed look at where and why people are locked up in the U.S., and dispels some common myths about mass incarceration to focus attention on overlooked issues that urgently require reform. For the first time, we also include a high-level look at changes to confined populations over the past few years.
Mass Incarceration Impacts All of Us
Once we have wrapped our minds around the “whole pie” of mass incarceration, we should zoom out and note that people who are incarcerated are only a fraction of those impacted by the criminal legal system. There are another 671,000 people on parole and a staggering 2.9 million people on probation.
Many millions more have completed their sentences but are still living with a criminal record, a stigmatizing label that comes with collateral consequences such as barriers to employment and housing. In addition, 19 million have been convicted of a felony, 79 million have a criminal record, and it is estimated that 113 million adults have an immediate family member who has been to prison or jail.
How Do These Statistics Rank with Other Countries?
With nearly two million people behind bars at any given time, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world.
We also spend about $182 billion every year — not to mention the significant social cost — to lock up nearly 1% of our adult population.
However, this is only a fraction of those who are under some sort of state or federal supervision. In addition to those who are incarcerated there are also another 3.5 million men and women on probation or parole. Put simply, the United States locks up more than any other independent democratic country on earth.
