Corrections & Reentry

The correctional population in the United States includes adults under community supervision (on probation or parole), in state and federal prisons, and in local jails. Over the past three decades the correctional population has increased from approximately 1.8 million in 1980 to more than 7.1 million in 2010, with the majority (70%) under the supervision of community corrections (probation or parole).^[1] During 2010, the number of persons under supervision of correctional authorities declined by 1.3%. This was the second consecutive year of decline in the correctional population while the parole population increased by 0.3%.^[2]

Fast Facts

• Over the past three decades, the correctional population (those on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend) has incresed from approximately 1.8 million in 1980 to nearly 7.1 million in 2010.^[3]

• The total national, federal, and state-level direct expenditures for corrections (including community corrections) was $74 billion in 2007.^[4]

• In 2010, approximately 1 in every 33 adults was under correctional supervision.  About 7 in 10 persons under the supervision of adult correctional systems were on probation or parole, while about 3 in 10 were incarcerated in local jails or in the custody of state or federal prisons.^[5]

• In 2010, the community supervision population declined 1.3% from 4,954,600 to 4,887,900 (or one in every 48 adults). This represented the second consecutive decline observed in the population since data collection began in 1980. The probation population decreased by 1.7%, which was also the second consecutive year of decline, while the parole population increased by 0.3%.^[6]

• At midyear 2011, the number of persons confined in local jails declined by 1.8% to reach 735,601 inmates, the third consecutive year of declining jail populations.^[7]

• About 6 in 10 jail inmates on June 30, 2011 were not convicted, but in jail awaiting court action on a current charge, a rate unchanged since 2005; 4 in 10 were sentenced or convicted and awaiting sentencing.^[8] 

• Local jails admitted an estimated 11.8 million persons between July 2010 and June 2011, about 16 times the size of the inmate population at midyear.^[9]  

• The overall U.S. prison population declined inn 2010 for the first time since 1972. There were 1,612,395 prisoners under state and federal jurisdiction at yearend 2010, a decrease of 0.3% (5,575) prisoners from yearend 2009. The federal prison population increased 0.8%, while the number of prisoners under state jurisdiction declined by 0.5%, the second consecutive annual decline in the state prison populations since 1977.^[10]

• During 2010, prison releases (708,677) exceeded prison admissions (703,798) for the first time since BJS started to collect jurisdictional data in 1977.^[11]

• In 2009, the most recent data available, 53% of state prison inmates were serving time for violent offenses, 19% for property-related offenses, 18% for drug-related offenses, and 9% for public order offenses.^[12]

• About half (51%) of federal inmates in 2010 were serving time for drug offenses, 35% for public-order offenses (largely weapons and immigration), and less than 10% each for violent and property offenses.^[13]

• In 2010, black non-Hispanic males were incarcerated in state or federal prison at a rate nearly seven times higher than white non-Hispanic males and nearly three times higher than Hispanic males.^[14]