BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
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Home | Corrections | State and federal prisoners and prison facilities | Prison population counts
Prison population counts
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The main source for annual prisoner counts is the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) program data collection, which began in 1926 under a mandate from Congress to collect statistics on prisoners. NPS distinguishes between custody and jurisdiction prison populations (see Terms and Definitions for more information). Imprisonment rates refer to the number of persons under the jurisdiction, or legal authority, of state or federal correctional officers per 100,000 U.S. residents. When prison populations are combined with local jail counts, they are referred to as the incarcerated population, and the incarceration rate is the number of persons in prison or jail per 100,000 U.S. residents.

NPS also gathers data on the number of prisoners admitted to and released from prison each year, prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year, race and sex distributions, and the number of non-U.S. citizens and inmates age 17 or younger held in custody. BJS uses offender-level administrative data from the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) and the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP) to calculate age and offense distributions of the state and federal prison populations.

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Data Collections & Surveys

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Publications & Products


Prisoners in 2015 Presents final counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities at yearend 2015.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF 193K) | PDF (1.1M) | ASCII file (85K) | Comma-delimited format (Zip format 41K)
Part of the Prisoners Series

Aging of the State Prison Population, 1993-2013 Discusses factors that have contributed to the growing number of older offenders in state prison, and examines changes in the sex, race, current offense, and sentencing characteristics of these offenders over time.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF 236K) | PDF (2M) | ASCII file (63K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 54K)

Prisoners in 2014 Presents final counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities on December 31, 2014, collected by the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) program.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF 235KB) | PDF (1.3M) | ASCII file (76KB) | CSV (Comma Separated Values) (Zip format 40KB)
Part of the Prisoners Series

Federal Justice Statistics, 2011–12 Describes the annual activity, workloads, and outcomes associated with the federal criminal justice system from arrest to imprisonment, using data from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), and Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
  PDF (3.7M) | ASCII file (59k) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 50K)
Part of the Federal Justice Statistics Series

Capital Punishment in the United States, 2013 - Statistical Tables Presents information on persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2013, and persons executed in 2014.
  PDF (1M) | ASCII file (34K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 54K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series

Prisoners in 2013 IN 2013 THE STATE PRISON POPULATION ROSE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2009
 
Part of the Prisoners Series

Prisoners in 2013 Presents final counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities on December 31, 2013, collected by the National Prisoner Statistics Program.
  Press Release | PDF (2.1M) | ASCII file (80K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 54K)
Part of the Prisoners Series

Capital Punishment, 2012 - Statistical Tables (Revised) Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2012, and persons executed in 2012.
  PDF (765KB) | ASCII file (14KB) | Zip format (28KB)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series

Federal Justice Statistics, 2010 Describes the annual activity, workloads, and outcomes associated with the federal criminal justice system from arrest to imprisonment, using data from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
  PDF (4.3M) | ASCII file (67K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 183K)
Part of the Federal Justice Statistics Series

Prisoners in 2012: Trends in Admissions and Releases, 1991-2012 (Revised) Presents final counts on prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities on December 31, 2012, collected in the National Prisoner Statistics Program.
  Press Release | PDF (2M) | ASCII file (44K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 36K)
Part of the Prisoners Series

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Terms & Definitions

Custody To have custody of a prisoner, a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must physically hold that person in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the BOP may hold inmates over whom a different government maintains jurisdiction.
 
Custody count The number of offenders in custody. To have custody of a prisoner, a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must physically hold that person in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the BOP may have custody of a prisoner over whom a different government maintains jurisdiction.
 
Design capacity The number of inmates that planners or architects intended for the facility.
 
Federal prisons Prison facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Prisoners housed in these facilities are under the legal authority of the federal government. This excludes private facilities under exclusive contract with BOP.
 
Imprisoned population The population of inmates confined in prison or other facilities under the jurisdiction of the state or Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
 
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