Line chart of the number of persons in prison, in jail, on probation, and on parole from 1980 to 2006 (four lines, one for each status.) Throughout the period, the probation population has been the largest, followed by the prison population, the parole population and the jail population.
For probation, the number of persons began at 1,118,097 in 1980 and rose to 4,237,023 in 2006.
For jail, the number of persons began at 183,988 in 1980 and increased, reaching 766,010 in 2006.
For prison, the number of persons began at 319,598 in 1980 and rose to 1,492,973 in 2006.
For parole, the number of persons began at 220,438 in 1980 and increased to 798,202 in 2006.