December 1, 2009

Prisoners in 2008

This report was written by William J. Sabol, Ph.D., Statistician, BJS, Heather C. West, Ph.D., Statistician, BJS, and Matthew Cooper, Intern, BJS. At year end 2008, federal and state correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 1.6 million prisoners. The prison population increased by 12,201 prisoners from 2007 to 2008, the smallest annual increase since 2000. The 0.8% growth during 2008 was the second year of decline in the rate of growth and the slowest growth in eight years. From 2000 to 2008 the growth of the prison population was less than a third of the rate observed during the 1990s. State correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 1.4 million prisoners at year end 2008, an increase of 10,539 state prisoners during the year. Federal correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 201,280 prisoners, up 1,662 federal prisoners from the previous year. While the numbers of state and federal prisoners reached all-time year end highs in 2008, the respective growth rates for each slowed.