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Home | Corrections | Total correctional population
Total correctional population
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About this Topic

The total correctional population includes all persons incarcerated, either in prison, jail,  or supervised in the community (probation or parole). Several different data collections are used to estimate this population, including the National Prisoner Statistics, Annual Survey of Jails, and Annual Probation Survey and Annual Parole Survey (listed under data sources).  The basic count for correctional population is updated annually in the Probation and Parole in the United States series.

Summary findings

  • In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend  — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.
  • About 70 percent of the persons under correctional supervision at yearend 2008 were supervised in the community, either on probation or parole, while 30 percent were incarcerated in the nation’s prisons or jails.
  • At yearend 2008 a total of 4,270,917 adult men and women were on probation and 828,169 were on parole or mandatory conditional release following a prison term.
  • State and federal prison authorities had jurisdiction over 1,610,446 prisoners at midyear 2008: 1,409,166 in state jurisdiction and 201,280 in federal jurisdiction.
  • Local jails held 785,556 persons awaiting trial or serving a sentence at midyear 2008. An additional 72,852 persons under jail supervision were serving their sentence in the community.

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Key Facts

Thumbnail   Adult correctional population trends
The number of adults in the correctional population has been increasing.
Chart Page | Data Table | Spreadsheet | d_link
Thumbnail   Imprisonment rate
After sharp increases in the 1980s and 1990s, the incarceration rate has recently grown at a slower pace.
Chart Page | Data Table | Spreadsheet | d_link
Thumbnail   Percent of adults under correctional supervision
Almost 5% of the adult males and 1% of the adult females in the United States were under some form of correctional supervision in 1997.
Chart Page | Data Table | Spreadsheet | d_link
Thumbnail   Race of adults under correctional supervision
In 1997, about 9% of the black population in the U.S. was under some form of correctional supervision compared to 2% of the white population and over 1% of other races.
Chart Page | Data Table | Spreadsheet | d_link
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Data Collections & Surveys

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Terms & Definitions

Community corrections Community corrections refers to the supervision of criminal offenders in the resident population, as opposed to confining them in secure correctional facilities. The two main types of community corrections supervision are probation and parole. Community corrections is also referred to as community supervision.
 
Incarcerated population Incarcerated population is the population of inmates confined in a prison or a jail. This may also include halfway-houses, bootcamps, weekend programs, and other entities in which individuals are locked up overnight.
 
Jail inmates Jail inmates are offenders confined in short-term facilities that are usually administered by a local law enforcement agency and that are intended for adults but sometimes hold juveniles before or after adjudication. Jail inmates usually have a sentence of less than 1 year or are being held pending a trial, awaiting sentencing, or awaiting transfer to other facilities after a conviction.
 
Parole Parole refers to criminal offenders who are conditionally released from prison to serve the remaining portion of their sentence in the community. Prisoners may be released to parole either by a parole board decision (discretionary release/discretionary parole) or according to provisions of a statute (mandatory release/mandatory parole). This definition of parole is not restricted to only prisoners who are released through a parole board decision, but also includes prisoners who are released based on provisions of a statute. Parolees can have a number of different supervision statuses including active supervision, which means they are required to regularly report to a parole authority in person, by mail, or by telephone. Some parolees may be on an inactive status which means they are excluded from regularly reporting, and that could be due to a number of reasons. For instance, some may receive a reduction in supervision, possibly due to compliance or meeting all required conditions before the parole sentence terminates, and therefore may be moved from an active to inactive status. Other supervision statues include parolees who only have financial conditions remaining, have absconded, or who have active warrants. Parolees are also typically required to fulfill certain conditions and adhere to specific rules of conduct while in the community. Failure to comply with any of the conditions can result in a return to incarceration.
 
Prison Compared to jail facilities, prisons are longer-term facilities owned by a state or by the Federal Government. Prisons typically hold felons and persons with sentences of more than a year; however, the sentence length may vary by state. Six states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Delaware, Alaska, and Hawaii) have an integrated correctional system that combines jails and prisons. There are a small number of private prisons, facilities that are run by private prison corporations whose services and beds are contracted out by state or federal governments.
 
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