Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021, over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system,. At year-end 2023, 1,254,200 people were under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, an increase of 24,100, or 2 percent, from 2022. Separately, local jails held 657,500 people in custody at midyear 2024, similar to 664,200 at midyear 2023; the 2024 figure is preliminary. The United States has the largest known prison population in the world. The country comprises 5% of the world's population while having 20% of the world's incarcerated persons. For comparison, China, with more than four times as many inhabitants, has fewer people in prison.Highest to Lowest. World Prison Brief (WPB). Use the dropdown menu to choose a list of countries by region or by the whole world. Use the menu to select highest-to-lowest lists of prison population totals, prison population rates, percentage of pre-trial detainees/remand imprisoned people, percentage of imprisoned females, percentage of imprisoned foreign people, and occupancy rate. Column headings in WPB tables can be clicked to reorder columns from lowest to highest or alphabetically. For detailed information for each country, click on any country name in the list. See also the WPB main data page and click on the map links and/or the sidebar links to get to the region and country desired. Prison populations grew dramatically beginning in the 1970s, but began a decline around 2009, dropping 25% by year-end 2021.

Drug offenses account for the incarceration of about 1 in 5 people in U.S. prisons. Violent offenses account for over 3 in 5 people (62%) in state prisons. Property offenses account for the incarceration of about 1 in 7 people (14%) in state prisons.

The United States maintains a higher incarceration rate than most developed countries. According to the World Prison Brief on May 7, 2023, the United States has the sixth highest incarceration rate in the world, at 531 people per 100,000. Expenses related to prison, parole, and probation operations are estimated at around $81 billion annually. Court costs, bail bond fees, and prison phone fees amounted to another $38 billion annually.

Since reaching its peak level of imprisonment in 2009, the U.S. has averaged a rate of decarceration of 2.3% per year. This figure includes the anomalous 14.1% drop in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is significant variation among state prison population declines. Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have reduced their prison populations by over 50% since peaking. Twenty-five states have reduced their prison populations by 25% since reaching their peaks. The federal prison population downsized 27% relative to its peak in 2011. There was a 2% decrease in the number of persons sentenced to more than 1 year under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons from 2022 to 2023.

Although debtor's prisons no longer exist in the United States, residents of some U.S. states can still be incarcerated for unpaid court fines and assessments .Knafo, Saki (February 12, 2014). The U.S. Is Locking People Up For Being Poor. The Huffington Post. Retrieved February 12, 2014. The Vera Institute of Justice reported in 2015 that the majority of those incarcerated in local and county jails are there for minor violations and have been jailed for longer periods of time over the past 30 years because they are unable to pay court-imposed costs.Timothy Williams (February 11, 2015). Jails Have Become Warehouses for the Poor, Ill and Addicted, a Report Says. The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2015. People in some states may face extra penalties or longer supervision if they are unable to pay court-related fines and fees.

History

In the 18th century, English philanthropists began to focus on reforming convicted criminals in prison, whom they believed needed a chance to become morally pure to stop or slow crime. Since at least 1740, some of these philosophers have thought of solitary confinement as a way to create and maintain spiritually clean people in prisons. As English people immigrated to North America, so did these penological theories.

Spanish colonizers in Florida also brought their own ideas of confinement, and Spanish soldiers in St. Augustine, Florida, built the first substantial prison in North America in 1570.

Some of the first structures built in English-settled America were jails, and by the 18th century, every English-speaking North American county had a jail. These jails served a variety of functions, such as a holding place for debtors, prisoners-of-war, and political prisoners, those bound in the penal transportation and slavery systems, and those accused but not tried for crimes. Sentences for those convicted of crimes were rarely longer than three months and often lasted only a day. Poor citizens were often imprisoned longer than their wealthier neighbors, as bail was rarely granted.

One of the first prisons in America was founded in 1790 by the Pennsylvania Quakers to create a system they viewed as less cruel than dungeon prisons. They created a space where imprisoned people could read scriptures and repent as a means of self-improvement. This was known among prison reformers as the Pennsylvania System, which focused on reform, rehabilitation of the prisoner, and saving prisoners' souls through religious instruction.

In 1841, Dorothea Dix claimed that prison conditions in the U.S. were, in her opinion, inhumane. Imprisoned people were chained naked and whipped with rods. Others, who were criminally insane, were caged or placed in cellars or closets. She insisted on changes throughout the rest of her life. While focusing on the insane, her comments also resulted in changes for other inmates. Late in the 1800s, Superintendent Zebulon Brockway also changed the landscape of prison life by introducing institutionalized learning programs to inmates for rehabilitation purposes at the Elmira Reformatory in New York. As Monroe County Penitentiary Superintendent, Brockway implemented a points-based behavior system that identified low risk offenders and allowed them to participate in education programs which was later included industrial/trade schools, moral education, and academia.

Following the Civil War and during the Progressive Era of America, new concepts of the prison system, such as parole, indeterminate sentencing, and probation, were introduced. These concepts were encoded into legislative statutes in efforts to maintain the systems of racial capitalism that were formerly supported by unpaid slave labor. These legal frameworks became mainstream practices resulting in mass incarceration and legal discrimination of African Americans and other marginalized groups in America. At this time, there was an increase in crime, causing officials to handle crime in a more retributive way. Many Sicilian Americans were harshly affected by this. However, as the crime rate declined, the prison system started to focus more on rehabilitation. US incarceration count, and rate per 100,000 population. Jails, state prisons, federal prisons.United States of America. World Prison Brief.YearCountRate1940264,834 2011950264,620 1761960346,015 1931970328,020 1611980503,586 2201985744,208 31119901,148,702457 19951,585,586 592 20001,937,48268320022,033,02270320042,135,33572520062,258,79275220082,307,50475520102,270,14273120122,228,42470720142,217,94769320162,157,80066620182,102,40064220201,675,40050520211,767,200531 On June 18, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse "public enemy number one" in a message to Congress. His message also called for federal resources to be used for the "prevention of new addicts and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted." Following this, the media began using the term "war on drugs". According to author Emily Dufton, Nixon "transformed the public image of the drug user into one of a dangerous and anarchic threat to American civilization."

The presidency of Ronald Reagan saw the expansion of federal efforts to prevent drug abuse and prosecute offenders. Reagan signed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which established mandatory minimum sentences and expanded penalties for marijuana possession. He also signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Support for Reagan's crime legislation was bipartisan. The 1980s saw a dramatic rise in the prison population, especially among non-violent offenders and people convicted of drug offenses.Hinton, Elizabeth. "From the War on Crime to the War on Drugs". From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: the Making of Mass Incarceration in America, by Elizabeth Hinton, Harvard University Press, 2017, pp. 307–332.Nation Behind Bars: A Human Rights Solution. Human Rights Watch, May 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2014.

Researcher Valerie Jenness writes, "Since the 1970s, the final wave of expansion of the prison system, there has been a huge expansion of prisons that exist at the federal and state level. Now, prisons are starting to become a private industry as more and more prisons are starting to become privatized rather than being under government control."

After the beginning of the "war on terror", the U.S. began to hold prisoners in secret CIA prisons (known as black sites) in foreign countries in order to avoid the restrictions of the Constitution. President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of these secret prisons in a speech on September 6, 2006.

Incarcerated population

As of 2023, 59% of incarcerated people are in state prisons; 12% are in federal prisons; and 29% are in local jails. Of the total state and federal prison population, 8% or 96,370 people are incarcerated in private prisons. An additional 2.9 million people are on probation, and over 800,000 people are on parole. At year-end 2021, 1,000,000 people were incarcerated in state prisons; 157,000 people were incarcerated in federal prisons; and 636,000 people were incarcerated in local jails.

Approximately 1.8 million people are incarcerated in state or federal prisons or local jails. There are over 1 million people who are incarcerated in state prisons. There are 656,000 people incarcerated for violent offenses, 142,000 for property offenses, 132,000 for drug offenses, and 110,000 for public order offenses. The percentage breakdown of people in state prisons by offense type is as follows: 63% of people are incarcerated for violent offenses, 13% for property offenses, 13% for drug offenses, and 11% for public order offenses.

The federal prison population is approximately 209,000. 148,000 of these people are incarcerated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Of these people, there are 69,000 people incarcerated for drug offenses, 61,000 for public order offenses, 11,000 for violent offenses, and 6,000 for property offenses. The percentage breakdown of people incarcerated by offense-type is as follows: 47% of people are incarcerated for drug offenses, 42% for public order offenses, 7% for violent offenses, and 4% for property offenses. The U.S. Marshals Service incarcerates a further 60,000 people. Of these people, there are 21,000 incarcerated for drug offenses, 14,000 for immigration offenses, 9,000 for weapons offenses, and 7,000 for violent offenses.

Finally, 619,000 people are incarcerated in local jails. Jail incarceration accounts for a third of all incarcerations. Over 80% of people incarcerated in local jails have not yet been convicted.

The First Step Act was adopted in 2018 in an effort to shrink the incarcerated population in the Federal Bureau of Prisons system. In 2025, BOP Director William Marshall announced a renewed emphasis on the execution of those promises, including shrinking the population of non-violent offenders in the federal system.

Demographics

Race and ethnicity