• At yearend 2021, about 5,444,900 persons were under the supervision of a correctional authority in the United States, including 3,745,000 persons under community supervision and 1,775,300 incarcerated in state or federal prisons or local jails (table 1).
  • The total correctional population in 2021 showed a 1% decline from yearend 2020 (5,506,000) and a 22% decline from 2011 (6,994,500).
  • The total correctional population declined by 0.6% to 2% each year from 2011 to 2019, but it decreased 13% from 2019 to 2020 due to responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • On December 31, 2021, about 2,963,000 persons were supervised in probation programs, a decline of 3% from 2020 (3,053,700).
  • The population under community supervision decreased almost 4% from yearend 2020 to yearend 2021 and 22% from yearend 2011 to yearend 2021.
  • While state and federal prison populations decreased by 16,800 persons from yearend 2020 to yearend 2021, local jails incarcerated 87,200 more persons in 2021 than in 2020, resulting in a 5% increase in the total number of persons incarcerated by federal, state, and local authorities.
  • The number of persons incarcerated at yearend 2021 decreased 21% from yearend 2011.
Source

E. Ann Carson, PhD, and Rich Kluckow, DSW. Correctional Populations in the United States, 2021 - Statistical Tables. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Washington, DC. February 2023. NCJ305542.