The population of inmates housed in prisons and jails in the United States exceeds 2 million, with the per capita incarceration population higher than that officially reported by any other country.Incarceration in the United States
Approximately 80 percent of women who go to jail each year are mothers.Incarceration in the United States
Moreover, more than 2.7 million children in the United States have an incarcerated parent.
That translates to one out of every 27 children in the United States having an incarcerated parent.Incarceration in the United States
According to a 2021 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, every state has a higher incarceration rate than virtually any independent democracy on earth. Incarceration in the United States
Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses.
As of January 2023, the United States has the second largest prison population in the world, and the sixth highest per-capita incarceration rate.
One out of every 5 people imprisoned across the world is incarcerated in the United States.
Prison, parole, and probation operations generate an $81 billion annual cost to U.S. taxpayers, with an additional $63 billion for policing.
Nearly 80,000,000 individuals in the US have a criminal record and are living with consequences including lifelong provisions on voting, food, and housing assistance and employment. Incarceration rate in the United States
Individuals with a history of incarceration, have early risks for a higher rates of chronic health conditions, and very high rates of morbidity and mortality during the period immediately following release. Incarceration rate in the United States
One in three black men have a lifetime risk of imprisonment, and there is a black to white disparity of imprisonment of more than 9 to 1 in seven states. Incarceration rate in the United States
Nearly 25% of black individuals in the US have three or more immediate family members who have been incarcerated compared with 5% of white individuals in the US.
Having a family member incarcerated is associated with a high rate of chronic health conditions among both adults and children.
Court costs, bail bond fees, and prison phone fees generate another $38 billion in individual costs.
Evidence suggests incarceration rates are primarily a function of media editorial policies, largely unrelated to the actual crime rate.
Media coverage has been proven to have a profound impact on criminal sentencing.
In the United States, Individuals who violate state laws and/or territorial laws generally are placed in state or territorial prisons, while those who violate United States federal law are generally placed in federal prisons operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
State prisons proportionately house more violent felons, and have gained a more negative reputation compared to federal prisons.
In 2016, almost 90% of prisoners were in state prisons; 10% were in federal prisons.
In 2023, the United States has the sixth highest incarceration rate in the world, at 531 people per 100,000.
Between 2019 and 2020, the United States saw a significant drop in the total number of incarcerations.
In 2018, the United States had the highest incarceration rate in the world.
The United States represents about 4.2 percent of the world’s population, but houses around 20 percent of the world’s prisoners.
As of March 2023 publication, it is estimated that in the United States, about 1.9 million people were or are currently incarcerated:
1,047,000 people were in state prison, 514,000 in local jails, 209,000 in federal prisons, 36,000 in youth correctional facilities, 34,000 in immigration detention camps, 22,000 in involuntary commitment, 8,000 in territorial prisons, 2,000 in Indian Country jails, and 1,000 in United States military prisons.
Main causes of the increase in the United States’ incarceration rate over the previous 40 years: longer prison sentences and increases in the likelihood of imprisonment.
Longer prison sentences were the main driver of increasing incarceration rates since 1990.
Looking at reasons for imprisonment will further clarify why the incarceration rate and length of sentences are so high.
State governments in the United States mandate state courts to impose harsher sentences on habitual offenders who are previously convicted of two prior serious criminal offenses and then commit a third.
Crime rates in low-income areas are much higher than in middle to high class areas.
Incarceration rates in low-income areas are much higher than in wealthier areas due to these high crime rates.
There is a strong positive correlation between lower income as an adult if an individual is incarcerated in their youth in comparison to those who are not incarcerated.
People incarcerated at a younger age lose the capability to invest in themselves and in their communities.
This contributes to the recurring that is positively correlated with incarceration.
Poverty rates have not been curbed despite steady economic growth.
Drug crimes have been the predominant reason for new admissions into state and federal prisons in recent decades.
Incarceration rates have risen by 400% for women of all races, while rates for Black women have risen by 800%.
Currently, the U.S. is at its highest rate of imprisonment in history, with young Black men experiencing the highest levels of incarceration.
One out of every 15 people imprisoned across the world is a Black American incarcerated in the United States.
Almost one-third of Black men in their twenties are either on parole, on probation, or in prison.
This has resulted in distrust from Black individuals towards aspects of the legal system such as police, courts, and heavy sentences.
Black men and women are imprisoned at higher rates compared to all other age groups, with the highest rate being Black men aged 25 to 39.
However, since the early 2000s, the incarceration rates for African American and women have declined, while incarceration rates have increased for white women.
Between 2000 and 2017, the incarceration rate for white women increased by 44%, while at the same time declining by 55% for African American women.
The Sentencing Project reports that by 2021, incarceration rates had declined by 70% for African American women, while rising by 7% for white women.
The incarceration rate of African American males is also falling sharply, even faster that white men’s incarceration rate, contrary to the popular opinion that black males are increasingly incarcerated.
The War on Drugs played a role in the disproportionate amount of incarcerated African-Americans.
Despite a general decline in crime, the massive increase in new inmates is due to drug offenses.
Drug-related arrests continued to increase in the city despite a near 50% drop in felony crimes.
Racially and economically segregated neighborhoods that account for the majority of the Black prison population.
As many as one in eight adult males who inhabit these urban areas is sent to prison each year, and one in four of these men is in prison on any given day.
Upon release from prison, the most common area that African Americans return to is a poor, impoverished neighborhood.
As a result of the rising number of people incarcerated as a result of the War on Drugs and the wave of privatization that occurred under the saw the emergence of the for-profit prison industry.
Lobbying the federal government along with state governments these companies seek to expand the privatization of corrections and lobbies for policies that would increase incarceration, such as three-strike laws and “truth-in-sentencing” legislation.
Prison companies also sign contracts with states that guarantee at least 90 percent of prison beds be filled.
The state must reimburse the prison company for the unused beds.
In January 2021, U.S. signed an executive order directing the (DOJ) to begin phasing out its contracts with private federal prisons.
Gallup polling since 1989 has found that in most years in which there was a decline in the U.S. crime rate, a majority of Americans said that violent crime was getting worse.
Research claims that incarceration rates are primarily a function of media editorial policies, largely unrelated to the actual crime rate.
The jump in incarceration rate is driven by changes in the editorial policies of the mainstream commercial media and is unrelated to any actual changes in crime.
The reasons for increased incarcerations (US racial demographics, Increased sentencing laws, and Drug sentencing laws) have been described as consequences of the shift in editorial policies of the mainstream media.
Media coverage has been proven to have a profound impact on criminal sentencing.
The more media attention a criminal case is given, the greater the incentive for prosecutors and judges to pursue harsher sentences, and this is directly linked to the enormous increase in media coverage of crime over the past two decades.
Legislatures continually have reduced discretion of judges in both the sentencing process and the determination of when the conditions of a sentence have been satisfied.
Determinate sentencing, use of mandatory minimums, and guidelines-based sentencing continue to remove the human element from sentencing, such as the prerogative of the judge to consider the mitigating or extenuating circumstances of a crime to determine the appropriate length of the incarceration.
Perhaps the greatest force behind the growth of the prison population has been the nations War on Drugs.
The War on Drugs initiative expanded during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. During Reagan’s term, a bi-partisan Congress established the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, galvanized by the death of Len Bias. According to the Human Rights Watch,
Legislation like this led to the increase in drug offense imprisonment and increased racial disproportions among the arrestees.
In 2020, the non-profit Prison Policy Initiative said, based on the most recent census data and information from the Bureau of Prisons, an overwhelming majority of inmates in county and municipal jails were being held pre-trial, without having been convicted of a crime.
The Pre-Trial Justice Institute found , Six out of 10 people in U.S. jails—nearly a half million individuals on any given day are awaiting trial.
Studies find there is no evidence that spending more time in prison raises the recidivism rate, and found that those serving the longest time, 61 months or more, had a slightly lower re-arrest rate (54.2%) than every other category of prisoners.
Study shows a strong negative correlation between recidivism and age upon release.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a study was conducted that tracked 404,638 prisoners in 30 states after their release from prison i it was found that within three years after their release 67.8% of the released prisoners were rearrested; within five years, 76.6% of the released prisoners were rearrested, and of the prisoners that were rearrested 56.7% of them were rearrested by the end of their first year of release.
According to a 2021 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, every state has a higher incarceration rate than virtually any independent democracy on earth.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2018 black males accounted for 34% of the total male prison population, white males 29%, and Hispanic males 24%.
White females comprised 47% of the prison population in comparison to black females who accounted for 18% of the female population.
The imprisonment rate for black females (88 per 100,000 black female residents) was 1.8 times as high as for white females (49 per 100,000 white female residents), while the imprisonment rate for black males (2,272 per 100,000 black male residents) was 5.8 times as high as for white males (392 per 100,000 white male residents).
African Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, and Native Americans have some of the highest rates of incarceration.
The black population is the largest, and therefore make up a large portion of those incarcerated in US prisons and jails.
Black people are more likely to be arrested for violent crimes than white people in the United States.
Whether this is the case for less serious crimes is less clear.
There are more black males incarcerated in the United States than all women imprisoned globally.
The rate of female incarceration increased because of increased prosecutions and convictions of offenses related to recreational drugs, increases in the severities of offenses, and a lack of community sanctions and treatment for women who violate laws.
More than half of the women in prisons and jails (56%) are incarcerated for drug or property offenses, and Black women are two times as likely to be incarcerated as white women.
Black women tend to receive longer sentences and harsher punishments than white women for committing the same crimes.
Males received 12 percent longer prison terms than females after controlling for the offense level, criminal history, district, and offense type, and noted that females receive even shorter sentences relative to men than whites relative to blacks.
The United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world.
US for being the only nation in the world to sentence juveniles to life imprisonment without parole.
The incarceration of youths has been linked to the effects of family and neighborhood influences.
About 16% percent of those serving life sentences will be elderly.
State governments pay all of their inmates housing costs which significantly increase as prisoners age.
In mates are unable to apply for Medicare and Medicaid and most Departments of Correction report spending more than 10 percent of the annual budget on elderly care.
LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender) youth are disproportionately more likely than the general population to come into contact with the criminal justice system.
16 percent of transgender adults have been in prison and/or jail, compared to 2.7 percent of all adults.
13–15 percent of youth in detention identify as LGBT, whereas an estimated 4–8 percent of the general youth population identify as such.
Poverty, homelessness, profiling by law enforcement, and imprisonment are disproportionately experienced by transgender and gender non-conforming people.
LGBT youth also live in homes unwelcoming to their identities. resulting in youth running away and/or engaging in criminal activities, such as the drug trade, sex work, and/or theft, which places them at higher risk for arrest.
Transgender adults are also more likely to engage in criminal activities to be able to pay for housing, health care, and other basic needs.
LGBT people in jail and prison are particularly vulnerable to mistreatment by other inmates and staff.
This mistreatment includes solitary confinement which may be described as “protective custody”, physical and sexual violence, verbal abuse, and denial of medical care and other services.
40 percent of transgender inmates reported sexual victimization compared to 4 percent of all inmates.
In the United States, the percentage of inmates with mental illness has been steadily increasing.
Not only do people with recent histories of mental illness end up incarcerated, but many who have no history of mental illness end up developing symptoms while in prison.
The increased disproportionate rates of mental illness in prisons and jails is due in part to the increased use of solitary confinement, for which socially and psychologically meaningful contact is reduced to the absolute minimum, to a point that is insufficient for most detainees to remain mentally well functioning.
Most inmates do not get the mental health services that they need while incarcerated.
There are reports that corrections officers routinely use excessive violence against mentally ill inmates for nonthreatening behaviors related to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Inmates who have a mental illness tend to stay for longer days in jail compared to inmates who don’t have a mental illness.
Inmates with mental illness may struggle to understand and follow prison rules, and get in trouble with more facility violation rules.
Suicide is the leading cause of death in many prisons, and people who have a serious mental illness tend to die by suicide more often in prison.
Time in prison is associated with poor mental health both during and post-incarceration, a it is high levels of stress, a loss of autonomy, removal from social networks and communities, inhumane and often unpredictable living conditions, and little to no mental health treatment access.
Following release, the lack of mental healthcare, worsening of mental health in prison, and the onslaught of competing needs of housing, health insurance, employment, food security creates a vicious cycle contributing to even worse mental health, high post-release mortality by suicide and other causes, and individuals cycling back into jail and prison.
Solitary confinement a practice in which incarcerated individuals are housed alone for 23 or more hours and is characterized by extreme conditions of isolation, sensory deprivation, and idleness is a generally used as a disciplinary sanction.
During this time period, the number of African American youth detained increased by 9% and the number of Hispanic youths detained increased by 4%, yet the proportion of White youth declined by 13%.
Supermax prison facilities provide the highest level of prison security.
Prisoners usually have one- or two-person cells operated from a remote control station.
Each cell has its own toilet and sink.
Inmates may leave their cells for work assignments or correctional programs and otherwise may be allowed in a common area in the cellblock or an exercise yard.
Fences are generally double fences with watchtowers housing armed guards, plus often a third, lethal-current electric fence in the middle.
Prisoners that fall into the medium security group may sleep in cells, but share them two and two, and use bunk beds with lockers to store their possessions.
Depending upon the facility, each cell may have showers, toilets and sinks.
Prisoners in minimum security facilities are considered to pose little physical risk to the public and are mainly non-violent white collar criminals.
Minimum security prisoners live in less-secure dormitories, which are regularly patrolled by correctional officers.
As in medium security facilities, they have communal showers, toilets, and sinks.
A minimum-security facility generally has a single fence that is watched, but not patrolled, by armed guards.
At facilities in very remote and rural areas, there may be no fence at all.
Prisoners may often work on community projects.
Prisoners who maintain contact with family and friends in the outside world are less likely to be convicted of further crimes and usually have an easier reintegration period back into society.
Death row and maximum security inmates are usually under stricter mail guidelines for security reasons.
Many claim prisoners and detainees face abusive, degrading and dangerous conditions,
Surveys show concerns with prisoner rape and medical care for inmates, with a survey of 1,788 male inmates in Midwestern prisons showing 21% responded they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration, and 7% that they had been raped in their current facility.
The poor quality of food provided to inmates is an issue.
Because of lapses in food safety, prison inmates are 6.4 times more likely to contract a food-related illness than the general population.
Gang violence in prisons occurs as gang members retain their gang identity and affiliations when imprisoned.
Many prisons in the United States are overcrowded.
Inadequate security engendered by this situation, coupled with insufficient staffing levels, have led to increased violence and a prison health system that causes deaths.
Prisons have become criminogenic as a result of prison overcrowding.
The US has more prisoners confined in isolation than any other country in the world.
Stabbings are a routine occurrence in prisons.
The conditions for women in prison, especially Black women, are often poor.
Prisons are known to do less in order to help Black women get out of the prison system.
Because prisons are male dominated, a larger portion of the resources are allocated towards men.
Women in prisons experience sexual assault, which often comes from guards.
Women in prison experience physical, mental, and emotional trauma as they are forced to endure sexual abuse and a lack of resources for their intimate needs.
In prison, women are dehumanized and treated like objects.
In Like many other socio-political issues, women seem to be left out of the conversation when it comes to prison reform.
Again, not many people consider the experiences that women have endured in their time of imprisonment.
Women were degraded to an extreme extent, and sexual abuse was often brought on by the guards and officers who are supposed to watch over them.
Private prisons profit from contractual agreements with a government agency that pays them a monthly rate either for each prisoner or for each space available.
The private prison industry has successfully lobbied for changes that increase the profit of their employers.
The private prison industry has been accused of being at least partly responsible for America’s high rates of incarceration.
About 18% of eligible prisoners held in federal prisons are employed by UNICOR and are paid less than $1.25 an hour.
Prisons have become a source of low-wage labor for corporations seeking to outsource work to inmates:Corporations that utilize prison labor include Walmart, Eddie Bauer, Victoria’s Secret, Microsoft, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nintendo, Chevron Corporation, Bank of America, Koch Industries, Boeing and Costco Wholesale.
It is estimated that one in nine state government employees works in corrections.
In a 2022 (ACLU) prison labor produced $11 billion worth of goods and services annually, with inmates often being forced to work dangerous jobs with no labor protections and little training, and are compensated with pennies per hour or sometimes nothing at all.
During ordinary times in the US, approximately 80,000 people are held in solitary confinement, and more than 10% have been spent three years and more under these conditions.
11% of all black men in Pennsylvania born between 1986 and 1989 had been held in solitary confinement by 32 years of age.
15 days is the threshold in solitary confinement as the international standard characterized as solitary confinement as a violation of human rights.
During COVID-19 outbreaks, solitary confinement was widely used as a protective measure and increased to approximately 300,000 people held in solitary confinement.
Studies suggest that each year of incarceration shortens persons future life by two years and another estimates the loss of nearly 5 years of life expectancy, by age 45.
Housing the approximately 500,000 people in jail in the US awaiting trial who cannot afford bail costs $9 billion a year.
Incarceration has a negative effect on crime, but this effect becomes smaller as the incarceration rate increases.
Higher rates of prison admissions increase crime rates, whereas moderate rates of prison admissions decrease crime.
The rate of prisoner releases in a given year in a community is also positively related to that community’s crime rate the following year.
The crime-reducing effects of increasing incarceration are totally offset by the crime-increasing effects of prisoner re-entry.
Many people convicted of felonies lose their right to vote either temporarily or, in some cases, permanently.
Currently, over 6 million Americans are disenfranchised for this reason.
People who have been recently released from prison are ineligible for welfare in most states.
They are not eligible for subsidized housing, and for Section 8 they have to wait two years before they can apply.
Released prisoners also have to find employment, but this can be difficult as employers often check for a potential employees criminal record.
Recently released from prison comes into a society that is not prepared structurally or emotionally to welcome them back.
Black people with advanced degrees have fewer convictions.
Black people without advanced education have more.
For every mother that is incarcerated in the United States there are about another ten people (children, grandparents, community, etc.) that are directly affected.
Moreover, more than 2.7 million children in the United States have an incarcerated parent.
That translates to one out of every 27 children in the United States having an incarcerated parent.
Approximately 80 percent of women who go to jail each year are mothers.
There is a correlation between high cholesterol, migraines, and HIV/AIDS diagnosis to children with a parental incarceration.
Children with an incarcerated parent have a significantly higher chance of developing a wide variety of physical problems such as obesity, asthma, and developmental delays.
The chronic stress that results directly from the uncertainty of the parent’s status is the primary influence for the extensive list of acute and chronic conditions that could develop later in life.
The instability in a child’s life deprives them of certain essentials such as money for food and parental love that are needed for leading a healthy life.
Male children whose father have been incarcerated display more behavioral issues than any other combination of parent/child.
The most prominent mental health outcomes in children whose parent are incarcerated are anxiety disorders, depression (mood), and post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD).
Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to be incarcerated compared to those without incarcerated parents.
The transmission of emotional strain on a parent negatively impacts the children by disrupting the home environment.
Societal stigma against individuals, specifically parents, who are incarcerated is passed down to their children.
Health surveys of inmates show that the prison population faces higher rates of chronic and infectious diseases, mental illness, and substance use disorders, hypertension, diabetes, myocardial infarction, asthma, arthritis, cervical cancer, and hepatitis than the general U.S. population.
The prison environment exacerbates chronic health conditions: cannot be properly addressed, stress of social isolation, poor nutrition, lower average levels of education, higher levels of community violence and drug use, and lower rates of healthcare access.
The incarcerated population also has lower rates of health literacy.
In the incarcerated population, low health literacy is linked with decreased confidence in taking medications, increased likelihood of emergency department visits, and difficulty self-managing chronic health conditions.
People who have felony records have a harder time finding a job.
The psychological effects of incarceration can also impede an ex-felon’s search for employment, as it can cause social anxiety, distrust, and other psychological issues that negatively affect a person’s reintegration into an employment setting.
Men who are unemployed are more likely to participate in crime which leads to there being a 67% chance of ex-felons being charged again.
Black men with no criminal background have a harder time finding employment than white men who have a history of criminal activity.
Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today.
High rates of incarceration may be due to sentence length.
Shorter sentences may even diminish the criminal culture by possibly reducing re-arrest rates for first-time convicts.
Half of all persons incarcerated under state jurisdiction are for non-violent offenses, and 20% are incarcerated for drug offense.
The extraordinary rate of incarceration in the United States wreaks havoc on individuals, families and communities.
The population of inmates housed in prisons and jails in the United States exceeds 2 million, with the per capita incarceration population higher than that officially reported by any other country.
Some argue that the expanding disparity of wealth and the increasing criminalization of those in poverty have culminated in the U.S. having the largest prison population in the history of human civilization.
Some assert that the justice system throughout the U.S. is designed to keep people mired in poverty and to generate revenue to fund the justice system and other governmental programs.
A system of mass incarceration necessarily interferes with a free society characterized by industry, discovery, and creation.
Some argue the expansive prison system has become a political institution designed to deal with an urban crisis created by welfare state and economic deregulation, and that intrusive penal state is injurious to the ideals of democratic citizenship.
As mass incarceration has increased, the prison system has become more about economic factors than criminality.