Mass Incarceration Trends
2023
This report from The Sentencing Project indicates that nearly 2 million people are currently incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails. The report highlights the massive surge of incarcerations starting from the 1970s and how the number of people in prison has marginally declined since 2010. The report examines numerous aspects of incarceration in America, including mass incarceration, probation and parole, racial and ethnic disparities, offense types, federal drug laws, incarcerated women, life and long-term imprisonment, voting rights among those with felony convictions, and youth in adult prisons. According to the report, nearly half of those incarcerated in federal institutions were convicted of drug offenses in 2021, whereas more than half of those imprisoned in state prisons were convicted of violent crimes. Black people have the highest rate of imprisonment, with one in 81 Black adults serving time in state prison. Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated compared to white men, while Latinx men are 2.5 times as likely to be incarcerated compared to white men.
Source:
Nellis A. Mass Incarceration Trends. The Sentencing Project 2023. https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/mass-incarceration-trends.