Prisoners in 2005

The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, with the U.S. Census Bureau as its collection agent, obtains year-end and mid-year counts of prisoners from departments of correction in each of the 50 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) distinguishes prisoners in custody from those under jurisdiction. Prisoners under state jurisdiction may be in the custody of a local jail, another states prison, or other correctional facilities. Some states are unable to provide both custody and jurisdiction counts. Excluded from NPS counts are persons confined in locally administered confinement facilities who are under the jurisdiction of local authorities. NPS counts include all inmates in state operated facilities in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont, which have combined jail-prison systems. NPS excludes inmates held by the District of Columbia (DC), which as of year-end 2001 operated only a jail system.

Key findings for 2005 include:

• Fourteen states had prison population increases of at least 5%, led by South Dakota (up 11.9%), Montana (up 10.9%), and Kentucky (up 10.4%)
   
• Eleven states experienced prison population decreases, led by Georgia (down 4.6%), Maryland (down 2.4%), Louisiana (down 2.3%), and Mississippi (down 2.2%)
   
• State inmates held in private prison facilities increased 8.8%, reaching 80,401 at yearend 2005
   
• Federal inmates held in private facilities increased 9.2% to 27,046
   
• State and federal inmates held in local jails decreased 1.8% to 73,097