Jail
Usually run locally. It holds people waiting for court and people serving shorter sentences. Being in jail does not always mean a person has been convicted.
Public safety, rights & responsibility
Policing & Incarceration
Who goes to jail or prison? Who makes those decisions? And how does the United States compare with other countries?
Jail and prison are not the same
Prison
Usually run by a state or the federal government. It generally holds people convicted of crimes and serving longer sentences.
Probation and parole
Supervision while living in the community. Probation can be part of a court sentence; parole usually follows time in prison. These are not the same as being locked up.
What the latest reports show
In prison or local jail
BJS’s combined 2023 estimate, with overlapping records removed.
In local jails in 2024
A midyear snapshot. It is not the number of people who entered jail during the whole year.
Of jail inmates were unconvicted
In the 2024 report, these people were awaiting court action on a current charge or were held for other reasons.
Why not 2026 numbers? National reports take time to collect and check. When this page was reviewed, BJS still listed its 2024 combined report and 2024 prison report as forthcoming. Newer jail-only figures do not give us a complete newer total. BJS release schedule
Why might someone stay in jail before trial?
A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Courts decide whether the person can wait for the case in the community or must remain in custody. Rules differ between states and the federal system.
Bail and release conditions
Where money bail is used, a person may stay in jail because they cannot meet the payment requirement. Release can also require check-ins, travel limits, or other conditions. Money is not required in every case.
Safety and returning to court
A judge may order detention when the law allows it and release conditions would not adequately address safety or the risk of missing court. Some people are held without an option to pay for release.
Waiting for the case
For someone already detained, delays in hearings or trial can lengthen the stay. Courts must follow applicable speedy-trial rules. A delay itself does not prove guilt.
“Unconvicted” does not mean “unable to afford bail.” The jail statistic describes case status. It does not tell us why each person is being held.
The longer view: prison rates since 1970
This table follows sentenced prisoners in state and federal systems. From 1980 onward, these checkpoints count people sentenced to more than one year under prison authority. The 1970 record uses an older definition, explained below. It is not the full prison-and-jail total. A rate of 500 means about 500 people for every 100,000 residents.
| Year | Sentenced prisoners per 100,000 residents | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1970Older counting method | 96 | BJS historical source |
| 1980 | 139 | BJS source |
| 1990 | 292 | BJS source |
| 2000 | 478 | BJS source |
| 2010 | 500 | BJS source |
| 2023 | 360 | BJS source |
The 1970 figure is a historical starting point. It counted adults serving felony sentences in state and federal institutions. The later series uses sentences longer than one year. Before 1977, the series counted people held by prison systems; starting in 1977, it counted people under their legal authority, even if housed elsewhere. These are useful checkpoints, but the counting rules are not identical. BJS explains the changes.
Prison and jail together: 2013–2023
The combined estimate fell from about 2.22 million to 1.85 million over these years. It dropped sharply in 2020 and then rose again. That pattern alone cannot tell us whether one law or party caused the change.
| Year | Combined total | Prison population¹ | Local jail population² | Combined rate per 100,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2,222,500 | 1,577,000 | 731,200 | 700 |
| 2014 | 2,225,100 | 1,562,300 | 744,600 | 700 |
| 2015 | 2,172,800 | 1,526,600 | 727,400 | 680 |
| 2016 | 2,165,100 | 1,508,100 | 740,700 | 670 |
| 2017 | 2,153,600 | 1,489,200 | 745,200 | 660 |
| 2018 | 2,122,300 | 1,464,400 | 738,400 | 650 |
| 2019 | 2,086,000 | 1,430,200 | 734,500 | 630 |
| 2020 | 1,697,000 | 1,221,200 | 549,100 | 510 |
| 2021 | 1,776,000 | 1,205,100 | 636,300 | 530 |
| 2022 | 1,827,600 | 1,230,100 | 663,100 | 550 |
| 2023 | 1,852,900 | 1,254,200 | 664,200 | 550 |
Why don’t the two columns add up? Some people under prison authority are housed in local jails. BJS removes that overlap from the combined total. We use its published total instead of adding the columns ourselves.
Most prisoners are under state authority
At the end of 2023, about 7 in 8 prisoners were under state authority. Federal laws and presidential decisions affect only part of the prison system; state laws and state officials matter greatly.
| System | People | Share of prison total |
|---|---|---|
| State systems | 1,097,597 | 87.5% |
| Federal Bureau of Prisons | 156,627 | 12.5% |
| Total | 1,254,224 | 100% |
This is a prison-only comparison. It is not the combined prison-and-jail total. “Authority” means the system legally responsible for a person, even if that person is housed elsewhere. These counts include all sentence statuses. People sentenced for D.C. felonies are included in the federal system.
Who makes the decisions?
Policing and imprisonment involve several parts of government. The president does not run every police department, courthouse, or prison.
| Decision maker | What they do |
|---|---|
| Lawmakers | Define crimes, set sentencing rules, and approve budgets. State laws and federal laws apply in different systems. |
| Police and sheriffs | Investigate possible crimes, respond to calls, and make arrests when legally allowed. An arrest is not a conviction. |
| Prosecutors | Decide which charges to bring and whether to offer plea agreements. |
| Courts | Handle release or detention decisions, decide cases through pleas or trials, and impose sentences after conviction. Juries may decide guilt at trial. |
| Corrections and release authorities | Run jails and prisons and carry out supervision and release rules. Their powers vary by state and system. |
How can policy change the number of people locked up?
More admissions or longer stays can increase the number. Shorter sentences, release decisions, or programs used instead of jail or prison can reduce it. Crime levels, arrest practices, charging decisions, court delays, bail rules, and violations of release conditions all matter.
A mandatory minimum is a law that sets a minimum sentence for a crime, with any exceptions defined by law. A plea agreement is an agreement in which a defendant pleads guilty, often in exchange for changes to charges or a sentencing recommendation.
What about policing?
Staffing is one piece
BJS counted about 473,000 full-time sworn officers in local police departments in 2020. “Sworn” means officers with law-enforcement powers. This excludes other groups, such as sheriffs’ offices and federal agencies.
More arrests ≠ more crime
Arrest totals also reflect enforcement choices and reporting. A person can be arrested more than once. Crime reports, arrests, convictions, and people in custody answer different questions.
Rights still apply
Police must obey the law. Excessive force and unlawful stops or arrests can violate people’s rights. Accountability can involve agency discipline, courts, and civil-rights enforcement.
Police staffing comparisons need clear boundaries. A count of local police alone is different from a count that also includes sheriffs, state police, and federal officers.
What changed in the 1970s and 1980s?
States changed sentencing
Many states moved toward fixed prison terms or sentencing guidelines. These rules aimed to make punishment more predictable and reduce differences between similar cases. Other laws set minimum prison terms.
Federal drug penalties grew
The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act set major federal drug mandatory minimums. Its crack and powder cocaine rules treated different drug amounts very differently. The law table below explains this and later changes.
The effects varied
Not every sentencing change increased imprisonment. Research found that effects differed by state and law. Some guideline systems were linked to slower prison growth.
The rise in imprisonment was already underway before the 1986 drug law and the 1994 crime law. State policies, federal policies, crime, and decisions about who entered prison and how long they stayed all need to be considered.
Major laws and policy changes
These examples show how policy changed. A law’s signing year does not tell us how much of a later increase or decrease it caused. State decisions matter too.
| Year / law | President when signed | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 · Anti-Drug Abuse Act | Ronald Reagan · Republican | Set major federal drug mandatory minimums. Crack cocaine triggered some penalties at much smaller amounts than powder cocaine—the 100-to-1 drug-quantity difference. Sentencing Commission history |
| 1994 · Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act | Bill Clinton · Democrat | Included prison-capacity grants and incentives tied to requiring people convicted of serious violent crimes to serve at least 85% of their sentences. The prison population had already been rising before this law. NIJ explanation |
| 2010 · Fair Sentencing Act | Barack Obama · Democrat | Reduced the federal crack/powder drug-quantity difference from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 and removed the mandatory minimum for simple crack possession. Quantity-ratio explanation · Law summary |
| 2018 · First Step Act | Donald Trump · Republican | Changed some federal sentencing rules, allowed certain earlier crack sentences to be reconsidered, and created earned-time-credit opportunities for eligible people. It did not rewrite every state’s prison laws. Bureau of Prisons overview |
What does “100-to-1” mean? It describes the amount of each drug that triggered certain penalties—not that every person’s sentence was 100 times longer.
Do the numbers differ across groups?
Yes. In the 2024 jail report, the rate was 566 per 100,000 Black residents and 149 per 100,000 White residents—about four times as high. These are jail-only rates, using each group’s population.
A gap tells us there is a difference. It does not, by itself, explain how much comes from crime exposure, policing, court decisions, economic conditions, or other factors. It should not be used to judge an individual.
What happens after release?
Reentry means returning from jail or prison to life in the community. Finding housing, work, identification, health care, and family support can be part of that transition. Some people also have to follow probation, parole, or other supervision rules.
Recidivism means returning to criminal behavior. Studies use different records to measure it, so two percentages may answer very different questions.
Arrested again
A new arrest was recorded. An arrest alone does not prove the person committed a crime.
Convicted again
A court recorded a new conviction. This is a different measure from an arrest.
Returned to custody
The person went back to jail or prison. Depending on the study, this can include a supervision-rule violation without a new criminal conviction.
Before comparing rates, ask: Who was studied? What counted as a return? Were people followed for one year, three years, or longer? A longer follow-up gives more time for an event to be recorded.
Successful reentry also involves stable housing, work, health, and community connections. One arrest-based number does not describe a person’s whole life after release.
How does the U.S. compare?
The U.S. rate is much higher than the selected countries and jurisdictions below. This comparison includes people held before trial as well as sentenced people.
A dated comparison, not live figures: These are the rates in Public Safety Canada’s 2024 comparison, using World Prison Brief data retrieved April 2, 2025. Each place’s underlying count may come from a different date. The “2024” heading does not mean all counts were taken in 2024.
| Country or jurisdiction | People in custody per 100,000 residents |
|---|---|
| United States | 541 |
| New Zealand | 187 |
| Australia | 163 |
| Scotland | 150 |
| England and Wales | 141 |
| France | 120 |
| Italy | 105 |
| Austria | 102 |
| Sweden | 96 |
| Canada | 90 |
| Switzerland | 77 |
| Denmark | 69 |
| Germany | 68 |
| Norway | 54 |
| Finland | 52 |
A higher rate does not prove a country is safer—or less safe. Crime levels, sentence lengths, pretrial detention, and legal systems can all affect the rate. These figures also differ from the BJS U.S. series because dates, coverage, and rounding differ.
Read the numbers carefully
- People held vs. admissions: a snapshot counts people held at one time. Admissions count entries, including repeat entries by the same person.
- Unconvicted does not mean “never convicted”: it describes the current case status. It also does not mean the person will be found guilty.
- Prison authority vs. physical location: a person under a prison system’s legal authority may be housed somewhere else, including a local jail.
- Coverage: the main BJS series covers adult state/federal prison and local-jail systems. It is not a count of everyone in juvenile facilities, immigration detention, military custody, or tribal facilities.
- Missing is not zero: no unsupported 2025 or 2026 total is filled in. A blank CSV value would mean unavailable, not no people.
Sources & downloads
Tables identify what is counted, the population used for rates, and the year of the data. Original reports and downloadable figures are linked below.
- BJS: Correctional Populations in the United States, 2023
- BJS: Jail Inmates in 2024
- BJS: Prisoners in 2023
- BJS: Local Police Departments Personnel, 2020
- Public Safety Canada: 2024 international comparison
U.S. annual data (CSV) · Historical prison rates (CSV) · International comparison (CSV) · Source notes
Related: Big-Impact Laws · How Laws Are Made · How We Check Information