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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.

Data Collections & Surveys

• Capital Punishment (NPS-8)
• Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities (CCF, Formerly CSFACF)
• Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP)
• National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP)
• National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) Program

Publications & Products

Prisoners in 2019 This report is the 94th in a series that began in 1926. It provides counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities in 2019 and includes findings on admissions, releases, and imprisonment rates.
	Press Release (203K) | Summary (PDF 176K) | Full report (PDF 796K) | Data tables (Zip format 46K) | Jurisdiction notes (PDF 86K) Part of the Prisoners Series
Correctional Populations in the United States, 2017-2018 This report is the 23rd in a series that began in 1985. It provides statistics on populations supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States, including persons held in prisons or jails and those supervised in the community on probation or parole.
	Full report (PDF 701K) | Data tables (Zip format 17K) Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series
Prisoners in 2018 This report is the 93rd in a series that began in 1926. It provides counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities in 2018 and includes findings on admissions, releases, and imprisonment rates.
	Press Release (221K) | Summary (PDF 579K) | Full report (PDF 2M) | Data tables (Zip format 48K) | Jurisdiction notes (PDF 166K) Part of the Prisoners Series
Data Collected Under the First Step Act, 2019 This is the first report as required under the First Step Act of 2018 (FSA, P.L. 115-391 § 610). It includes data on federal prisoners provided to BJS by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for calendar year 2018, which is prior to the enactment of the FSA.
	Full report (PDF 583K) | Data tables (Zip format 12K)
Prisoners in 2017 Presents final counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities at year-end 2017 and includes findings on admissions, releases, and imprisonment rates.
	Press Release (213K) | Summary (PDF 207K) | Full report (PDF 596K) | Data Tables (Zip format 100K) Part of the Prisoners Series
Correctional Populations in the United States, 2016 Presents statistics on persons supervised by U.S. adult correctional systems at year-end 2016, including persons supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in state or federal prison or local jail.
	Press Release (71K) | Full report (PDF 635K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 14K) Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series
Prisoners in 2016 Presents final counts of prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities at yearend 2016, including admissions, releases, noncitizen inmates, and inmates age 17 or younger.
	Press Release (74K) | Summary (PDF 205K) | Full report (PDF 1M) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 40K) Part of the Prisoners Series
Capital Punishment, 2014-2015 - Statistical Brief Presents statistics on persons under sentence of death at yearend 2014 and 2015, including summary trends in the population, admissions to and releases from death row, and the number of persons executed. Preliminary findings on executions in 2016 are also included. Data are from BJS's National Prisoner Statistics (NPS-8) series.
	Full report (PDF 393K) | ASCII file (7K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 58K) Part of the Capital Punishment Series
Federal Justice Statistics, 2013-2014 Describes the annual activity, workloads, and outcomes of the federal criminal justice system from arrest to imprisonment, using data from 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).
	Summary (PDF 250K) | Full report (PDF 3.93M) | ASCII file (85K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 57K) Part of the Federal Justice Statistics Series
Federal Justice Statistics, 2013 - Statistical Tables 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).
	Full report (PDF 3.2M) | ASCII file (87K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 55K) Part of the Federal Justice Statistics Series

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