August 18, 2021–The U.S. prison population fell to the lowest level in 2019 since 1995, according to recently released data from the U.S. Justice Department. In 2019, U.S. correction facilities held 6.3 million people, about 65,200 fewer than the previous year. That represented about 1 in 40 U.S. residents under correctional supervision in America.
Though the figure declined by about 3 percent over a decade, it still represents the world’s largest per capita imprisonment, according to the data available by the World Prison Brief.
China’s Numbers Aren’t A Total
It’s significant to note, however, that the imprisonment rate in China does not include people held in pre-trial detention – a figure that might total more than 650,000, or up to one million Uyghurs and other minorities held in detention centers, which China calls “reeducation centers.”
U.S. Number Don’t Match
What’s also significant is that the figures from the U.S. Justice Department don’t match those from the World Prison Brief. That organization showed a figure of 2 million U.S. federal, local and state prisoners in 2018.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Pew Research Center, and the World Prison Brief.
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