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Week of 6.1.07

By the Numbers: America's Prisons

7 million
Number of people in the U.S. who were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 2005.

1.5 million
Number of inmates held in state and federal prisons at yearend 2005.

National prison incarceration rate, 1980-2011
Source: Pew Public Safety Performance: Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America's Prison Population (pdf)
700 percent
Increase in prison population between 1970—when the state and federal prison population was under 190,000—and 2005.

$62 billion
Amount spent by federal, state, and local governments annually on adult and juvenile corrections.

$22,650
Average yearly cost per prisoner in the U.S. in 2001.

70,000
Number of inmates held in California prisons in excess of capacity.

Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi
States with the highest incarceration rates. Southern states generally have the highest rates of incarceration, and that trend is forecast to continue, whereas Northeastern states tend to have the lowest incarceration rates.

Maine, Minnesota and Rhode Island
States with the lowest incarceration rates.

52
Percentage of people who had returned to prison, either for a new offense or for violating the conditions of their release, within 3 years. (based on a 1994 Bureau of Justice Statistics study.)

The United States
Country that incarcerates more people than the Russian Federation, South Africa, Mexico, Iran, India, Australia, Brazil, and Canada combined.

10 states with highest prison growth
Source: Pew Public Safety Performance: Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America's Prison Population (pdf)
192,000
Estimated increase in the number of inmates to join the state and federal prison populations from 2007 to 2011. The 13 percent jump is set to raise the prison population to 1.7 million people.

$27 billion
Projected amount needed by federal and state governments over the next five years to accommodate the projected prison expansion and operation.

One
Percentage of adult females who were under some form of correctional supervision in 1997, compared to five percent of adult males. But women are catching up.

16
The percentage by which the number of women prisoners is expected to grow by 2011, compared to12 percent by men.

46
Number of states that will see an increase in prison populations from 2007 to 2011.

Montana
At 41 percent, the state with the highest anticipated growth rate in prison populations.

Connecticut, Delaware and New York
States where prison populations are not expected to increase.

Sources:

Pew Public Safety Performance: Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America's Prison Population 2007-2011

Pew Public Safety Performance: State Corrections Spending

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Adults under Correctional Supervision by Gender

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Bulletin—Prisoners in 2005

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Correction Statistics

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Recidivism of Prisoners in 1994




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