Nationwide and State-by-State Jail and Prison Population, 1970-2001
|
| Years | State and Federal Prisons: Source for Population Figures |
| 1970 | U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions: 1968–1970, Nat'l Prisoner Statistics Bull., Apr. 1972, at 22 tbl.10c. |
| 1971-1974 | U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on December 31, 1974, Nat'l Prisoner Statistics Bull., June 1976, at 14 tbl.1. |
| 1975 | U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on December 31, 1975, Nat'l Prisoner Statistics Bull., Feb. 1977, at 36 app. 2, tbl.1. |
| 1976 | U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on December 31, 1977, Nat'l Prisoner Statistics Bull., Feb. 1979, at 10 tbl.1. |
| 1977-1998 | Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in Custody of State or Federal Correctional Authorities (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/data/corpop05.wk1. |
| 1999-2001 |
Nationwide figures only: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in 2001, at 2 tbl.1 (NCJ 195189, 2002), available at http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/p01.pdf 2000 State-by-state custody figures: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Mental health Treatment in State Prisons, 2000, at 6 App. tbl.B (NCJ 188215), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/mhtsp00.pdf Note: Because these figures are for midyear, they do not quite add up to the nationwide total reported, which is for December 31. 1999, 2001: State-by-state custody figures are unavailable, For state by state counts of prisoners "under the jurisdiction" of state incarcerating authorities, see: 1999: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in 2000, at 3 tbl.3 (NCJ 188207, 2001) 2001: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Prisoners in 2001, at 3 tbl.3 (NCJ 195189, 2002) |
| Notes |
1) Figures are of all prisoners in custody, including both adults and juveniles in adult facilities and regardless of sentence or sentenced status. For states that run unified jail/prison systems, jail inmates are included. Custody counts differ slightly from counts of prisoners “under the jurisdiction” of incarcerating authorities; prisoners are counted based on where they are housed, not the identity of their incarcerating authority. 2) The sources above include state by state figures for state prisons, but do not separate out the federal prisoners by their state of incarceration. For that, consult the following sources, which report population by prison. (Because these population figures are typically as of Sept. 30 in each year, they do not line up precisely with the national figures from the above sources, which are counts as of the end of the year.) |
| Federal state-by-state population counts are derived from: | |
| 1970-1986 |
U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Statistical Report (annual) Table A-2: 1970-1976: Inmate count on June 30 1977-1986: Inmate count on Sept. 30 |
| 1987-1992 |
Federal Bureau of Prisons, "Population Report" (annual BOP in-house documents, copies provided by Sue Allison from the BOP's Office of Research and Evaluation, on file with author) 1987: Count as of Sept. 24 1988: Count as of Sept. 22 1989: Count as of Sept. 21 1990: Count as of Aug. 30 1991: Count as of Sept. 26 1992: Count as of Sept. 24 |
| 1993-2001 |
Federal Bureau of Prisons, State of the Bureau (annual), "Bureau of Prisons Facilities" section; available at http://www.bop.gov/ipapg/ipapubs.html 1993-1994: Average daily population 1995-1996: Inmate count on Sept. 28 1997-2001: Inmate count on Sept. 30 |
| Years | Jails: Sources for population figures |
| 1970 | Law Enforcement Assistance Admin., U.S. Dep't of Justice, National Jail Census 1970, at 10 tbl.2 (1971). |
| 1978, 1983, 1988, and 1993 | Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Jail Inmates, by Sex, Held in Local Jails (1997), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/data/corpop09.wk1. |
| 1999 | Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Census of Jails, 1999, at 2 tbl.3 (NCJ 186633, 2001) |
| 1980-2000 | Nationwide only: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Correctional Populations in the United States (2002), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/sheets/corr2.wk1. |
| Notes |
1) No state-by-state jail data are available except in the years of jail censuses (1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1999); even nationwide jail data are unavailable for 1971 to 1977 and 1979. In order to approximate national filing rates for years for which jail population data are not available, I have assumed a jail population of 160,000 in 1971 to 1977 and 170,000 in 1979. 2) For states that run unified jail/prison systems, jail inmates are merged with prisoners and included in prison figures. |
| Nationwide and state-by-state population figures | |
| 2000-2002 |
Table ST-EST2002-01 State Population Estimates: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2002 Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau Release Date: December 20, 2002 available at http://eire.census.gov/popest/data/states/tables/ST-EST2002-01.php |
| 1990-1999 |
Table ST-99-3 State Population Estimates: Annual Time Series, July 1, 1990 to July 1, 1999 Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau available at: http://eire.census.gov/popest/archives/state/st-99-3.txt |
| 1980-1990 |
Table: Intercensal Estimates of the Total Resident Population of States: 1980 to 1990 Source: Population Estimates Branch, U.S. Bureau of the Census Release date: Aug. 1996 available at http://eire.census.gov/popest/archives/state/stts/st8090ts.txt |
| 1970-1980 |
Table: Intercensal Estimates of the Total Resident Population of States: 1970 to 1980 Source: Population Distribution and Population Estimates Branches U.S. Bureau of the Census Release date: Feb. 1995 available at: http://eire.census.gov/popest/archives/state/stts/st7080ts.txt |