Updated data and charts: Women’s incarceration, national prison population counts, psychological distress behind bars, and more



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    • April 28, 2026 at 3:14 am #11983
      Kris Marker
      Keymaster

      Here at the Prison Policy Initiative, almost everything we write is accompanied by clear and powerful visualizations that convey the harms of mass criminalization and incarceration. When new data are available, some of our most-referenced charts merit an update. We also occasionally pull together charts at the request of advocates working on specific projects, and share them when we think they may be of use to others. (Get in touch with us if you think our Advocacy department can be of help.)

      Below, we are sharing some of these new and updated charts. Where applicable, we have updated the same data in downloadable spreadsheets in our Data Toolbox. Note that we also catalog our visualizations in a handy Visuals Database, where you can explore our charts by topic and link to each chart easily in your own work.

      Seeing state, local and federal correctional populations altogether

      State prisons and local jails are where the majority of incarcerated people are locked up, and state and local policies are what keep so many behind bars. As these charts show, prison and jail populations have rebounded after the pandemic temporarily stalled admissions and accelerated releases — highlighting a serious need for policies that will permanently reduce prison populations. For high-impact state policy ideas, even in times of turmoil, see our guide to winnable criminal justice reforms.

      • Chart showing the growth of incarceration rates in local jails, state prisons, and federal prisons from 1925 to 2023. Most people are incarcerated in state prisons — over 300 per 100,000 people.
      • Chart showing the growth of incarcerated populations in local jails, state prisons, and federal prisons from 1925 to 2023. Most people are incarcerated in state prisons — more than 1 million people.

      The disproportionate growth in women’s incarceration

      For almost fifty years, women’s prison populations have grown at a faster clip compared to men’s. The pandemic demonstrated that significant decarceration is possible, but a few years later, jail and prison population rebounds have again been faster for women. As we’ve explained elsewhere, the incarceration of women largely takes place in local jails, which offer fewer services than prisons and struggle to provide proper health care, and where most women have not even been convicted of a crime. Fortunately, advocates and lawmakers are paying increasing attention to the unique harms and burdens for women impacted by the criminal legal system. For more information and context, see our reports, Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie, and States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context.

      • bar chart showing that women's prison populations have grown faster than men's prison populations even after dropping faster during the pandemic
      • bar chart showing rates of women's incarceration in jails, state prisons, and federal prisons per 100,000 women from 1925 to 2023
      • bar chart showing the number of women incarcerated in jails, state prisons, and federal prisons per 100,000 women from 1925 to 2023

      Racial disparities persist behind bars

      As updated data show, incarceration continues to harm Black and Native people at wildly disproportionate rates compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Of course, these disparities often begin at earlier stages of the criminal legal system, like policing, pretrial detention, and opportunities for diversion.

      • bar chart showing that Black people have the highest rate of prison incarceration at 929 per 100,000 people, compared to Native, White, Hispanic, and Asian people
      • bar chart showing that Black people have the highest rate of prison incarceration at 552 per 100,000 people, compared to American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, White, Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian people
      • bar chart showing prison incarceration rates per 100,000 women of Native, White, Hispanic, Asian, and Other-race women
      • bar chart showing prison incarceration rates per 100,000 men of Native, White, Hispanic, Asian, and Other-race men

      See our Racial Justice page for more reports, briefings, research, and visualizations focused on the intersection of race and incarceration.

      The mass punishment system extends to probation and parole

      Looking only at the 2 million people behind bars obscures the fact that millions more people are under the thumb of the correctional system, on probation or parole. As of 2023, there are about 3 million people on probation and 536,000 people on parole who live under these poorly-designed “alternatives” to incarceration.

      People ensnared in the “mass punishment” system are in poorer overall health; as the second slide shows, those behind bars or under community supervision report much higher rates of serious psychological distress. Visit our Probation and Parole issue page to find out more about mass punishment at the national and state levels.

      • line graph showing changes in probation, parole, and incarcerated populations since 1975
      • chart showing that people under correctional control are far more likely to report being under serious psychological distress compared to people who are not

      If you find our datasets and charts useful in your work, let us know about it.

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