April 1, 2010

Prison Count 2010: State Population Declines for the First Time in 38 Years

The Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States conducted a survey to find the current prison population in January 1, 2010. The population counts were reported to the Association of State Correctional Administrators by each state’s Department of Corrections. Prison population counts as of December 31, 2008, were taken from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics’ "Prisoners in 2008" report. From December 2008 to January 2010, prison populations declined by 0.3%, from 1,408,830 to 1,404,053. The decline was attributed to advances in supervision technology and the science of behavior change, development of more accurate risk assessment tools, and to an increasing focus on cost-benefit analysis at the state level.