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2015 Prisoners in 1 (2015)

handle is hein.death/prsin2015 and id is 1 raw text is: 


U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

                                                                                              December 2016, NCJ 250229


Prisoners in 2015

E. Ann Carson, Ph.D., BJS Statistician
Elizabeth Anderson, BJS Intern


  A    t yearend 2015, the United States had an
       estimated 1,526,800 prisoners under the
Ajurisdiction of state and federal correctional
authorities. This was the smallest U.S. prison
population since 2005 (1,525,900 prisoners). The
prison population decreased by more than 2% from
the number of prisoners held in December 2014
(figure 1). This was the largest decline in the number
of persons under the jurisdiction of state or federal
correctional authorities since 1978 (figure 2).

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had jurisdiction
over 196,500 prisoners at yearend 2015, a decrease
of 14,100 prisoners from yearend 2014. This was
the third consecutive year that the federal prison
population declined and the lowest number of
federal prisoners since 2006 (193,000). This decrease
in federal prisoners accounted for 40% of the total
change in the U.S. prison population.

The statistics in this report are based on the Bureau
of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Prisoner Statistics
(NPS) program, which collects annual data from state
departments of corrections (DOCs) and the BOP on


FIGURE 1
Prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal
correctional authorities, December 31, 2005-2015


Number of prisoners
1,800,000
1,600,000-


Annual percent change


U.S. prison population


            Percent change'           -
'05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15


Note: Jurisdiction refers to the legal authority of state or federal
correctional officials over a prisoner, regardless of where the prisoner is
held. Federal data include prisoners held in nonsecure, privately operated
community corrections facilities and juveniles held in contract facilities.
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics, 2005-2015.


HIGHLIGHTS


* The total number of prisoners under the jurisdiction
  of state and federal correctional authorities on
  December 31, 2015 (1,526,800) decreased by 35,500
  (down more than 2%) from yearend 2014.
 The federal prison population decreased by 14,100
   prisoners from 2014 to 2015 (down almost 7%),
   accounting for 40% of the total change in the U.S.
   prison population.
 After increasing during the previous 2 years, the
   number of state and federal female prisoners
   decreased by 1% in 2015.
 State and federal prisons had jurisdiction over
   1,476,800 persons sentenced to more than 1 year
   on December 31,2015.


* The imprisonment rate in the United States
  decreased 3%, from 471 prisoners per 100,000
  U.S. residents of all ages in 2014 to 458 prisoners
  per 100,000 in 2015.
* State and federal prisons admitted 17,800 fewer
   prisoners in 2015 and released 4,700 more than
   in 2014.
 More than half of prisoners in state prisons (53%)
  at yearend 2014 were serving sentences for violent
  offenses, the most recent year for which data
  are available.
 Nearly half of federal prisoners incarcerated on
  September 30, 2015 had been sentenced for drug
  offenses, the most recent date for which federal
  offense data were available.


BS

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