Graph showing that only a small portion of incarcerated people, for all facility types are incarcerated in privately owned prisons and jails. In total, less than 8% are in private prisons, with 81,000 held for state prisons, 19,000 for the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service, 34,000 for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 6,000 held for youth systems and 14,000 held for local authorities.

Data Source: See the Data sources & methodology section of the full Whole Pie report. (Graph: Wendy Sawyer & Peter Wagner, 2025)

This graph originally appeared in Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2025.

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