Author Description

Presents data on prisoners under the jurisdiction of federal and state correctional authorities on December 31, 2010, collected from the National Prisoner Statistics series. Data compare changes in the prison population during 2010 to changes from yearend 2000 through yearend 2009, exploring factors leading to a decline into the state prison population. Findings cover data on decreasing admissions in state prisons; entry and exit rates and mean time served; imprisonment rates for prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year, by jurisdiction; the number of males and females in prison; age, race, and sex distributions of prisoners; and incarceration rates. Highlights include the following: On December 31, 2010, state and federal correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 1,612,395 prisoners, a decrease of 5,575 prisoners from yearend 2009 The federal prison population increased by 0.8% (1,653 prisoners), while the number of prisoners under state authority declined by 0.8% (10,881 prisoners). During 2010, prison releases (708,677) exceeded prison admissions (703,798) for the first time since BJS began collecting jurisdictional data in 1977. Part of the Prisoners Series