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This table has been updated with a new version in 2024.

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Era of Mass Expansion:

Why State Officials Should Fight Jail Growth

a Prison Policy Initiative Report
by Joshua Aiken
May 31, 2017

 

Table 1.
Conviction status, 1983-2013

Table 1. U.S. jail population by conviction status over time
1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008 2013
Pre-trial (unadjusted) 113,984 175,669 228,900 331,800 414,800 494,200 453,200
Convicted (unadjusted) 107,660 166,224 226,600 252,600 269,900 291,200 278,000
Held for state prisons 9,134 14,314 50,966 24,925 73,440 83,497 85,662
Held for immigration authorities 1,304 1,954 3,763 8,544 13,337 20,785 17,241
Held for Bureau of Prisons or U.S. Marshals Service 2,044 6,302 11,833 16,690 25,522 32,761 31,745
Total held for other authorities 12,482 22,570 66,562 50,159 112,299 137,043 134,648
Pre-trial (adjusted) 112,632 172,863 223,568 322,147 399,860 472,607 434,188
Convicted (adjusted) 96,530 146,460 165,370 212,094 172,541 175,750 162,364

Sources and methodology

Pre-trial (unadjusted)
The number of people physically held in a jail who are pre-trial/unconvicted as reported by jails to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. See our methodology.
Convicted (unadjusted)
The number of people physically held in a jail who are convicted as reported by jails to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. See our methodology.
Held for state prisons
The number of people physically held in a jail for state prison authorities, as reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics Prisoners Series. See our methodology.
Held for immigration authorities
The number of people physically held in a jail for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service) as reported by individual jails to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. See our methodology.
Held for Bureau of Prisons or U.S. Marshals Service
The number of people physically held in a jail for the federal Bureau of Prisons or the U.S. Marshals Service, as reported by individual jails to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. See our methodology.
Total held for other authorities
This is the sum of the number people held in jails for state prisons, immigration authorizes, the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Pre-trial (adjusted)
The number of people in jail who are being held for local authorities who are pre-trial/unconvicted. For the details on the portion of each state or federal population that we removed from the pre-trial/unconvicted population, see the adjustment section of our methodology.
Convicted (adjusted)
The number of people in jail who are being held for local authorities who are convicted. For the details on the portion of each state or federal population that we removed from the convicted population, see the adjustment section of our methodology.


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