Vera Institute of Justice, People in Jail and Prison in Spring 2021
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People in Jail and Prison in Spring 2021 Jacob Kang-Brown, Chase Montagnet, and Jasmine Heiss June 2021 Summary When the COVID-19 pandemic was first detected Figure 1 in the United States, it was clear that the virus The number of people incarcerated in jails and would cause widespread suffering and death among prisons from 1980 to spring 2021 incarcerated people. Advocates were quick to call 2,500,000 for prison and jail releases. However, a little more than a year later, decarceration appears to have 2,000,000 Total stalled. After an unprecedented 14 percent drop in incarceration incarceration in the first half of 2020—from 2.1 1,500,000 million people to 1.8 million—incarceration State & federal declined only slightly from fall 2020 to spring 2021. 1,000,000 prisons Generally, states that started 2020 with higher incarceration rates made fewer efforts to reduce 500,000 Local jails incarceration through spring 2021. This pattern 0 speaks to the political, economic, and social 198 0 1990 2000 2010 2020 entrenchment of mass incarceration. At the federal level, the number of people in civil Recent evidence from the Bureau of Justice custody for U.S. Immigration and Customs Statistics also shows that racial inequity worsened Enforcement (ICE) is less than one-third of the as jail populations declined through June 2020.1 2019 population, while the number of people Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) researchers detained for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) collected data on the number of people incarcerated facing federal criminal charges reached an all-time throughout 2020 and into early 2021 to provide high. timely information about how incarceration is Jail populations in rural counties dropped by 27 changing in the United States during the COVID-19 percent from 2019 through March 2021, the most of pandemic.2 Vera researchers estimated the any region. The historic drop in the number of incarcerated population using a sample of people incarcerated was neither substantial nor approximately 1,600 jail jurisdictions, 50 states, and sustained enough to be an adequate response to the the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the USMS, and ICE. pandemic, and incarceration in the United States remains a global aberration. Figure 2 Summary of incarcerated populations and changes by region Spring 2019 2,115,000 1,435,500 758,400 2020 1,816,300 1,309,500 573,400 2021 1,774,900 1,193,900 647,200 Change -340,100 -241,600 -111,200 % Change -16 -17 -15 Change -41,400 -115,600 73,800 % Change -2 -9 13 Urban 166,979 127,100 147,200 -19,779 -12 20,100 16 Suburban 146,976 116,800 132,600 -14,376 -10 15,800 14 Small/Midsize metro 260,169 208,400 232,800 -27,369 -11 24,400 12 Rural 184,295 121,200 134,500 -49,795 -27 13,300 11 Total U.S. Prisons U.S. Jails Vera INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE 2019 to spring 2021 Midyear 2020 to spring 2021 Midyear 34 35th Street, 4-2A, Brooklyn, NY 11232 212 3341300 vera.org Figure 2 note: Total incarceration numbers are adjusted downward slightly to avoid double counting people held in local jails under contract for state prisons. See “Methodology and Source Notes” at www.vera.org/publications/people-in-jail-and-prison-in-spring-2021. Figure 1 source note: The 2019, 2020, and 2021 jail and prison population estimates are based on data collected by Vera, while 1983 through 2018 estimates are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Census of Jails, Annual Survey of Jails, and National Prisoner Statistics. See generally BJS, “Data Collection: Census of Jails,” https://perma.cc/P992-8N2G; BJS, “Data Collection: Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ),” https://perma.cc/N5UQ-DSQQ; and BJS, “Data Collection: National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) Program,” https://perma.cc/4JJU-KLFC. The 1980 jail estimates are from the U.S. Census, see Margaret Werner Cahalan, Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850-1984 (Washington, DC: BJS, 1986), https://perma.cc/WDP7-35AA. incarceration—or maintain their reductions— through spring 2021. Introduction It has been more than a year since the first calls to release people from jails, prisons, and detention centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of March 2021, there were nearly 1.8 million people still incarcerated in the United States, down only 2 percent since June 2020—there was a 9 percent decrease in the prison population, but that was offset by a 13 percent increase in the jail population. In the face of continued demands for change, most politicians and policymakers failed or refused to do more. Instead they have tolerated widespread COVID-19 outbreaks in jails and prisons across the United States. New data collected by Vera and detailed in this report reveals that, after the unprecedented drop in the total incarcerated population in the United States that occurred in the first half of 2020, the second half of 2020 looked different. Some places sustained their reduced incarcerated populations, and some even pushed for further reductions. Other states, however, began incarcerating more people as states reopened and returned to previous practices. In early 2021, incarceration in the United States looks like a patchwork of big changes in the use of jail and prison, varying from state to state and city to city. Some states are reducing prison populations at the expense of refilling jails, as people sit behind bars waiting for court dates or transfers. Some states made less substantial changes in early 2020 but continued to reduce incarceration throughout the fall and winter— even as other states returned to “normal” in ways that have increased incarceration. Generally, however, states that started 2020 with higher incarceration rates made fewer efforts to reduce Widening racial disparities States and localities rarely publish data on incarceration by race, ethnicity, or gender. As a result, this report focuses on overall incarceration numbers. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) publishes annual reports that provide national estimates of the number of people in jail and prison using data collected through the Annual Survey of Jails, Census of Jails, and National Prisoner Statistics data series. These reports provide statistics on jail populations, including more detailed breakdowns by race and gender. The most recent BJS report for jails, which provides 2020 data, was released in March 2021. The report for 2019 prison data was released in October 2020, meaning it is too early to know whether racial disparities in prison changed during the pandemic.3 The BJS report on the 2020 jail population found that the national jail incarceration rate of Black people declined 22 percent between 2019 and 2020, while the jail incarceration rate of white people declined 28 percent.4 The same report also found that incarceration rate of Latinx people had declined 23 percent and the jail incarceration rate of Asian American people had declined 21 percent.5 These changes widened existing racial disparities in jail incarceration that see people of color targeted for incarceration at greater rates than white people. The historic changes in prison and jail populations triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic came during a national wave of global 2 demonstrations led by Black Lives Matter and accompanying demands to reckon with racism and police violence and fundamentally change the criminal legal system in the United States.6 As a result, there was far more pressure on officials in some states and counties to release people from prison and jail in 2020 and 2021 than in prior years. the number of people under the jurisdiction of state and federal prison systems and, thus, include people held in private prisons or local jails on a contract basis as well as people held in workrelease and medical facilities who are not free to leave and are still serving a prison sentence. Generally, Vera obtained data from the official websites of local jails and state corrections departments or from third parties that have been collecting data directly from jails. In instances in which this data was not available online, Vera requested the information from local jails or state corrections agencies by telephone or through public information requests. This report In order to provide the public with timely information on how jail and prison populations are changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vera collected midyear 2020, fall 2020 (on or around September 30), end of 2020 (on or around December 31), and spring 2021 (on or around March 31) jail and prison population data directly from a sample of local jails, state oversight agencies, state prison systems, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Vera also collected data on people detained by ICE who were held in local jails, private prisons, and dedicated immigration detention facilities.7 This report focuses on the changes from June 2020 to March 2021, but additional data for September 2020 and December 2020 is available in a data file online.8 Vera’s national prison statistics are estimates based on data from 50 states and the BOP, which together held 95 percent of the people incarcerated in prison in 2019 (jurisdictional data from Virginia and Wyoming was not available for spring 2021 and was estimated). Jail statistics are derived from a sample of about 1,600 jails. These include all county jails in 13 states and a sample of jails in the remaining states. Vera researchers used these counts to estimate the national total. The jails in Vera’s sample held almost three out of every four people incarcerated in jails in 2013, which was the last time the BJS reported information for all jails in the United States. All jail population counts in this report are estimates of the number of people in the custody of the local jail, not the number of people in the local jail’s jurisdiction. (See “Methodology and Source Notes” for a definition of these terms and a detailed description of Vera’s methods.) Prison population counts in this report are estimates of Incarcerated population The total number of people incarcerated in state and federal prisons and local jails in the United States dropped 14 percent from around 2.1 million in 2019 to 1.8 million by June 2020, declining a further 2 percent by March 2021. This represents a 23 percent decline from a peak of 2.3 million people in 2008. The incarceration rate in the United States, including state and federal prisons and local jails, was 537 people behind bars per 100,000 residents in early 2021. This is down from a peak of 760 per 100,000 in 2008. (See Appendix Figure 1 for full rate information.) Looking only at state and federal prisons, there was a 17 percent total decline between yearend 2019 and spring 2021, from approximately 1.44 million people to 1.19 million people. The majority of the prison decline occurred during the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic, with the prison population dropping to 1.3 million people at midyear 2020—a 9 percent decrease from the end of 2019—and continuing at a slower pace through spring 2021.9 In contrast, during the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic, local jails saw steep population declines. The total jail population dropped 24 percent, from an estimated 758,400 people in local jails in midyear 2019 to 573,400 in midyear 2020. However, from June 2020 to March 2021, local jail populations increased by 73,800 to 647,200 people—an increase of 13 3 percent in nine months. Overall, the total number of people incarcerated in prisons and jails was relatively constant between June 2020 and March 2021, as jail increases counterbalanced prison declines. n n n Jail populations in rural areas decreased more than in cities, then quickly rebounded (See Appendix Figure 2 for comparison of midyear 2010 and 2020 jail populations and for growth between June and March 2021 for a range of cities.) In the first part of 2020, the largest jail population declines were in rural areas. The rural jail population declined by 63,100 people between midyear 2019 and 2020—a 34 percent reduction. However, from midyear 2020 to early 2021, the number of people in rural jails grew by 13,300 people, a 11 percent increase. This brought the total rural jail population decline to 27 percent between midyear 2019 and early 2021. The large decline through the first part of 2020 shows that dramatic decarceration is possible in rural areas. Conversely, the quick growth demonstrates the broad capacity and political will to incarcerate people in rural counties. In March 2021, rural jail incarceration rates were more than twice as high as urban jail incarceration rates. Urban areas and small and midsized metro areas did not initially reduce jail incarceration as much as other areas and had more growth from June 2020 to March 2021. The total decline from mid-2019 to early 2021 in urban counties was only 12 percent, while the suburbs saw a 10 percent decline.10 (See Figure 2.) In contrast to rural counties, jail populations in many large cities have been decreasing for several years. Cities in which jail populations had already decreased significantly from 2010 to 2019 saw further declines through June 2020. However, most big city jail populations increased from June 2020 to March 2021, including n Philadelphia (56 percent decrease followed by a 20 percent increase); New York City (70 percent decrease followed by a 40 percent increase); and Oakland (58 percent decrease followed by a 21 percent increase). Decreases in prison populations were offset by increases in jail populations in late 2020 A number of factors caused these simultaneous increases in jail populations and decreases in state prison populations. In some jurisdictions, state prisons refused to accept people who had been sentenced to serve state prison time, suspending transfers from local jails due to COVID-19. Courts also paused jury trials or suspended other operations, while refusing to release many people who were detained before trial.11 These policies are institutional sleight of hand, akin to a shell game, in that they do not reduce incarceration but merely change its geography and jurisdiction. For example, the Los Angeles County jail population decreased by 30 percent between midyear 2019 and 2020, but then grew by 27 percent to 15,223 by the end of March 2021. At that point 3,900 people—more than one in four people held in the jail—were awaiting transfer to California state prisons.12 In West Virginia, jail populations in the state declined only 3 percent through June 2020 and then rose 21 percent by the end of March 2021. West Virginia state prison populations declined by 29 percent by the end of June 2020, followed by a further 19 percent through the end of March 2021. Overall, incarceration increased 1 percent in West Virginia between June 2020 and March 2021. (See Figure 3.) Chicago (52 percent decrease from 2010 to 2020, followed by a 24 percent increase from June 2020 to March 2021); 4 Figure 3 State-level comparison of prisons and local jail trends Percent change Year-end 2019/early 2020 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 2019 to midyear 2020 Midyear 2020 to spring 2021 2019 to spring 2021 County jails State prisons 195,289 69,782 125,507 32,282 12,568 19,714 166,472 51,506 114,966 24,320 6,879 17,441 158,159 61,660 96,499 24,815 9,145 15,670 -15 -26 -8 -25 -45 -12 -5 20 -16 2 33 -10 -19 -12 -23 -23 -27 -21 County jails State prisons 148,644 52,635 96,009 135,545 46,163 89,382 133,615 52,447 81,168 -9 -12 -7 -1 14 -9 -10 0 -15 County jails State prisons 92,375 36,819 55,556 79,596 28,705 50,891 79,759 33,444 46,315 -14 -22 -8 0 17 -9 -14 -9 -17 County jails-local County jails-state prisoners State prisons Massachusetts County jails State prisons New Mexico County jails State prisons New York County jails State prisons Ohio County jails State prisons Tennessee County jails local County jails-state prisoners State prisons 36,368 12,932 10,774 12,662 17,501 9,296 8,205 13,037 6,314 6,723 61,156 16,890 44,284 70,323 20,561 49,762 51,127 24,588 4,801 21,738 28,628 8,329 8,751 11,548 12,889 5,577 7,312 10,678 4,350 6,328 49,648 11,258 38,390 60,046 13,695 46,351 42,123 17,557 4,670 19,896 29,393 10,711 8,850 9,832 12,501 5,837 6,664 10,465 4,588 5,877 46,971 15,559 31,412 43,537 41,284 18,290 3,307 19,687 -21 -36 -19 -9 -26 -40 -11 -18 -31 -6 -19 -33 -13 -15 -33 -7 -18 -29 -3 -8 3 29 1 -15 -3 5 -9 -2 5 -7 -5 38 -18 -6 -2 4 -29 -1 -19 -17 -18 -22 -29 -37 -19 -20 -27 -13 -23 -8 -29 -13 -19 -26 -31 -9 207,374 65,825 188,086 61,496 180,663 63,172 -9 -7 -4 3 -13 -4 141,549 11,894 5,094 6,800 126,590 9,751 4,933 4,818 117,491 9,897 5,992 3,905 -11 -18 -3 -29 -7 1 21 -19 -17 -17 18 -43 California County jails State prisons Colorado Florida Georgia Kentucky Texas County jails State prisons on-hand West Virginia Regional jails State prisons Note: The states included in this table were selected because they were the only states for which complete information on the changes in county jail populations during 2020 was available at the time of writing. 5 ICE I ! ,! ;' .,· \ Jun 2019 By spring 2021, the number of people in civil custody for ICE had declined to around 15,000— less than a third of the 2019 population. However, in December 2020, Congress approved a budget funding an average daily population of 34,000 people to be held in ICE detention for fiscal year 2021. This indicates federal support for increased Source: USMS data reported directly to Vera by the USMS press office; ICE data compiled by Vera from annual reports and ICE website. 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 .... .. . ,.•·· Sep 2019 I Dec 2019 / Mar 2020 50,000 ·•' •'·•"" Sep 2020 60,000 _,,,,i' Jun 2020 / l / Dec 2020 USMS : Mar 2021 70,000 The number of people incarcerated by federal agencies from year-end 2019 to spring 2021 Figure 4 Another factor leading to reduced jail populations is the decreased use of jails by ICE for the detention of immigrants. Agencies like ICE and the USMS are responsible for incarcerating large numbers of people in local jails via contracts that allow them to rent jail cells in many jurisdictions.13 Although people detained by ICE are facing civil charges and are not being prosecuted in a criminal court, most are held in private prisons and other facilities operated by for-profit companies, with a substantial and growing number of people held in a network of contracted jail beds.14 Federal agencies detain large numbers of people in local jails ! t 6 Total incarceration information—accounting for both state prisons and local jails—is available for 18 states. (See Figure 5.)19 These states fit a general pattern of steeper declines in the first part of the pandemic—between 2019 and midyear 2020— than in subsequent months. Regional variation Arkansas (down 9.4 percent), Mississippi (down 9.1 percent), and Nebraska (down 6 percent) were the only states to reduce their prison populations by less than 10 percent from the end of 2019 through March 2021. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has been seeking to build a new prison, and the governor vetoed legislation to make many people eligible for parole sooner.17 (Although there is scant data for the jails in the state, the three largest jails—in Omaha, Lincoln, and Grand Island—have been refilled to approximately prepandemic levels.) Alabama’s prison population declined 11 percent in that time period, but the governor is currently planning for three new prisons. The legislature previously failed to pass proposed sentencing reforms that could have reduced long-standing overcrowding.18 All prison systems have fewer people incarcerated now than before the pandemic immigrant detention, a substantial share of which will likely continue to take place in jails.15 More than half of all people detained pretrial by the USMS while facing federal criminal charges are held in local jails—and many in rural jails.16 In contrast to the large declines in ICE detention, the total number of people detained by USMS (in jails and other detention settings) continued to increase and reach new highs in early 2021. (See Figure 4.) The number of people detained for the USMS declined by only 10 percent from 2019 to June 2020 (from 61,489 to 56,400 people). It subsequently reached a record level of 64,400 in March 2021. Figure 5 Total state prison and local jail rates and changes for select states Percent change Midyear 2020 to spring 2021 2019 to spring 2021 2019 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 2019 to midyear 2020 Alaska 612 590 581 -4 -1 -5 California 494 421 400 -15 -5 -19 Colorado 561 422 431 -25 2 -23 Connecticut 345 279 251 -19 -10 -27 Delaware 585 494 471 -15 -5 -19 Florida 692 631 622 -9 -1 -10 Georgia 870 750 751 -14 0 -14 Hawaii 366 314 290 -14 -8 -21 Kentucky 784 641 658 -18 3 -16 Massachusetts 254 187 181 -26 -3 -29 New Mexico 622 509 499 -18 -2 -20 New York 314 255 241 -19 -5 -23 Ohio 602 514 - -15 - - Rhode Island 259 219 215 -15 -2 -17 Tennessee 749 617 605 -18 -2 -19 Texas 712 649 623 -9 -4 -13 Vermont 258 227 198 -12 -13 -23 West Virginia 664 544 552 -18 1 -17 From midyear 2020 through spring 2021, only Vermont and Connecticut had double-digit percentage decreases. In contrast, some states had overall incarceration increases through that period, with Kentucky, Colorado, and West Virginia increasing 3, 2, and 1 percent, respectively. Comparing spring 2021 incarceration to 2019 reveals wider variation, and states that started the pandemic with higher incarceration rates generally did less to reduce incarceration. From 2019 to March 2021, Alaska decreased by 5 percent and Florida 10 percent. In contrast, Massachusetts was down 29 percent, Connecticut was down 27 percent, and Colorado, Vermont, and New York were down 23 percent. Prison incarceration rates remain the highest in the South By early 2021, Southern states had prison incarceration rates of 408 people in prison per 100,000 residents, compared to 300 in the Midwest, 282 in the West, and 188 in the Northeast. From the end of 2019 to March 2021, prison incarceration rates declined the most in the Northeast, (down 26 percent) and the least in the South and Midwest (down only 16 and 17 percent, respectively). The West was down 20 percent. (See Appendix Figures 3, 4, and 5 on pages 11 to 16). 7 Figure 6 The rural/urban divide in incarceration is visible across the country Jail incarceration rate, spring 2021 ■ Ru ral High rates of rural jail incarceration are apparent in many states for which Vera researchers had comprehensive data. (See Figure 6.) Relatively high rates of jail incarceration were apparent in rural areas in both lower incarceration rate states like New York and in higher incarceration rate states like Kentucky. Growth from June 2020 to March 2021 was also especially pronounced in many rural areas. (See Appendix Figure 6 on page 17). This is particularly troubling given the limited health care resources in rural counties as all jails, large and small, remain at risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. The impact of the pandemic on rural communities underscores the need to reinvest in community-based services and resources that promote community well-being and safety.20 California ■ Urban I Colorado I Florida I Georgia I Kentucky Massachusetts New York I I_ __J I~ Tennessee I Texas 0 200 400 600 Note: For simplicity, suburban counties and small to midsized metropolitan areas are not depicted. (See Appendix Figure 5.) population changes have reflected a deepening of preexisting political, economic, and social orientations toward punishment and detention. Racial inequalities in incarceration rates increased, and states and counties with high incarceration rates prior to the pandemic tended toward relative inaction during the pandemic. At minimum, states should be looking to close prisons and reduce budgets to match the much lower prison populations. States ranging from California to Texas, New York, and New Jersey have all proposed prison closures, but this policy agenda also needs to be pursed elsewhere. At the federal level, neither the Biden administration nor Congress has taken action that reflects a commitment toward sustained decarceration. As jails have been refilling, especially in rural areas, statewide pretrial reform and state and local efforts to reduce criminalization are also urgently needed. Conclusion A year ago, many jurisdictions started responding to the urgent call to decarcerate jails and prisons—an imperative step to save lives and protect the health of incarcerated people, staff, and their communities. Today, that sense of urgency has been lost, even as the pandemic still rages and the country continues to lead the world in incarceration. Nonetheless, by late March 2021, the outlines of a “new normal” in incarceration had emerged that includes sustained overall reductions in the number of people in prisons and jails—albeit with jail incarceration continuing to trend upward. The relative stasis in incarceration since late 2020 is the result of a refilling of many jails and a small, further decrease in prison populations. In many ways, however, jail and prison 8 Appendix Table 1 Summary of incarceration rates and changes by region Rates per 100,000 Residents 2019 to Spring '21 % Change Change Midyear 2020 to spring 2021 % Change Change 2019 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 644 437 237 551 397 178 537 361 201 -107 -76 -36 -17 -17 -15 -13 -36 23 -2 -9 13 Urban 168 127 147 -21 -12 20 16 Suburban 181 143 162 -19 -10 19 13 Small/Midsize metro 276 220 245 -31 -11 25 12 Rural 410 268 297 -113 -27 29 11 Total U.S. Prisons U.S. Jails 9 Appendix Figure 2 Jail incarceration counts in select large jurisdictions, 2010 to 2021 Between midyear 2020 and spring 2021 Between 2010 and 2020 Midyear 2010 Midyear 2020 Change % Change Spring 2021 Change % Change Los Angeles County, Calif. 18,036 11,948 -6,088 -34 15,223 3,275 27 Harris County, Texas 10,242 8,201 -2,041 -20 8,508 307 4 Maricopa County, Ariz. 8,055 4,468 -3,587 -45 5,710 1,242 28 Cook County, Ill. 9,586 4,589 -4,997 -52 5,690 1,101 24 Dallas County, Texas 6,865 5,090 -1,775 -26 5,575 485 10 New York City, N.Y. 13,049 3,876 -9,173 -70 5,408 1,532 40 Philadelphia, Penn. 8,804 3,874 -4,930 -56 4,644 770 20 San Diego, Calif. 4,762 3,655 -1,107 -23 4,334 679 19 Tarrant County, Texas 3,248 3,988 740 23 4,046 58 1 Miami-Dade County, Fla. 5,770 3,378 -2,392 -41 3,904 526 16 Bexar County, Texas 4,169 3,370 -799 -19 3,682 312 9 Jacksonville County, Fla. 3,835 3,290 -545 -14 3,663 373 11 Shelby County, Tenn. 5,766 3,627 -2,139 -37 3,596 -31 -1 Riverside County, Calif. 3,410 3,178 -232 -7 3,531 353 11 Sacramento County, Calif. 4,199 2,504 -1,695 -40 3,368 864 35 Orange County, Calif. 5,134 3,057 -2,077 -40 3,257 200 7 Fulton County, Ga. 2,488 2,493 5 0 2,950 457 18 Hillsborough County, Fla. 3,340 2,470 -870 -26 2,870 400 16 Orange County, Fla. 3,604 2,140 -1,464 -41 2,773 633 30 Pinellas County, Fla. 3,225 2,196 -1,029 -32 2,676 480 22 Santa Clara County, Calif. 3,587 2,093 -1,494 -42 2,357 264 13 Alameda County, Calif. 4,305 1,805 -2,500 -58 2,186 381 21 Allegheny County, Penn. 3,233 1,736 -1,497 -46 1,744 8 0 Milwaukee County, Wis. 2,710 1,492 -1,218 -45 1,604 112 8 Orleans Parish, La. 3,522 850 -2,672 -76 889 39 5 10 Appendix Figure 3 Change in prison incarceration from highest year to spring 2021 From high year to spring 2021 Highest prison pop. Year Count Spring 2021 2009 2012 2009 1,615,487 217,815 1,407,369 1,193,934 152,259 1,041,675 -421,553 -65,556 -365,694 -26 -30 -26 Connecticut (a) Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island (a) Vermont (a) Midwest 2007 2018 1997 2013 1999 1999 2011 2008 2009 20,924 2,425 11,947 3,018 31,493 72,899 51,578 4,045 2,220 8,961 1,666 6,664 2,189 12,538 31,412 38,262 2,275 1,238 -11,963 -759 -5,283 -829 -18,955 -41,487 -13,316 -1,770 -982 -57 -31 -44 -27 -60 -57 -26 -44 -44 Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio South Dakota 2012 2013 2010 2018 2006 2015 2017 2019 2015 2015 2017 49,348 29,913 9,455 10,218 51,577 10,798 32,601 5,682 1,795 52,233 3,970 27,503 24,296 7,625 8,749 32,962 7,455 22,939 5,319 1,538 43,537 3,252 -21,845 -5,617 -1,830 -1,469 -18,615 -3,343 -9,662 -363 -257 -8,696 -718 -44 -19 -19 -14 -36 -31 -30 -6 -14 -17 -18 Wisconsin 2018 24,064 20,161 -3,903 -16 U.S. Prisons Total Federal States Change % Change Northeast (a) Prisons and jails form one unified system. 11 Appendix Figure 3 Change in prison incarceration from highest year to spring 2021, continued Highest prison pop. Year Count Spring 2021 From high year to spring 2021 Change % Change South Alabama Arkansas Delaware (a) Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi North Carolina Oklahoma South Carolina Tennessee Texas (b) Virginia (b) West Virginia West 2012 2017 2007 2010 2009 2017 2012 2002 2008 2010 2016 2008 2017 2010 2015 2016 32,431 18,070 7,257 104,306 56,986 23,543 40,172 24,162 22,754 40,382 29,916 24,326 28,980 173,649 38,403 7,162 25,105 16,085 4,586 81,168 46,315 18,686 26,543 14,963 17,701 29,192 22,625 16,069 22,994 133,024 31,548 3,905 -7,326 -1,985 -2,671 -23,138 -10,671 -4,857 -13,629 -9,199 -5,053 -11,190 -7,291 -8,257 -5,986 -40,625 -6,855 -3,257 -23 -11 -37 -22 -19 -21 -34 -38 -22 -28 -24 -34 -21 -23 -18 -45 Alaska (a) Arizona California Colorado Hawaii (a) Idaho Montana (c) Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming (d) 2014 2015 2006 2008 2005 2019 2016 2016 2017 2013 2013 2017 2018 5,794 42,719 175,512 23,274 6,146 9,437 3,814 13,757 7,276 15,517 7,077 19,656 2,543 4,250 36,704 96,499 15,670 4,099 8,226 2,477 11,222 5,877 13,433 5,602 15,067 1,880 -1,544 -6,015 -79,013 -7,604 -2,047 -1,211 -1,337 -2,535 -1,399 -2,084 -1,475 -4,589 -663 -27 -14 -45 -33 -33 -13 -35 -18 -19 -13 -21 -23 -26 (a) Prisons and jails form one unified system. (b) Spring 2021 estimates based on people in DOC custody and the estimated number of people held in local jails. (c) Spring 2021 not fully comparable with prior years due to change in how Montana counts people in work release. (d) Spring 2021 estimate based on last known value and rate of change in states within region. 12 Appendix Figure 4 Prison population from 2019 to 2021 Percent change Year-end 2019 to midyear Midyear 2020 2020 to early 2021 Year-end 2019 to early 2021 Year-end 2019 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 1,435,500 175,116 1,260,393 1,309,485 161,640 1,147,845 1,193,934 152,259 1,041,675 -9 -8 -9 -9 -6 -9 -17 -13 -17 138,445 122,915 105,205 -11 -14 -24 Connecticut (a) 12,293 9,963 8,961 -19 -10 -27 Maine 2,205 1,834 1,666 -17 -9 -24 Massachusetts 8,205 7,332 6,664 -11 -9 -19 New Hampshire 2,622 2,426 2,189 -7 -10 -17 New Jersey 18,613 17,132 12,538 -8 -27 -33 New York 44,284 38,390 31,412 -13 -18 -29 Pennsylvania 45,875 42,101 38,262 -8 -9 -17 Rhode Island (a) 2,740 2,320 2,275 -15 -2 -17 Vermont (a) 1,608 1,417 1,238 -12 -13 -23 244,032 221,232 205,336 -9 -7 -16 Illinois 38,259 32,167 27,503 -16 -14 -28 Indiana 27,268 25,884 24,296 -5 -6 -11 Iowa 9,282 7,931 7,625 -15 -4 -18 Kansas 10,177 9,189 8,749 -10 -5 -14 38,053 35,425 32,962 -7 -7 -13 9,982 8,330 7,455 -17 -11 -25 26,044 24,027 22,939 -8 -5 -12 Nebraska 5,651 5,402 5,319 -4 -2 -6 North Dakota 1,794 1,247 1,538 -30 23 -14 49,762 46351 43,537 -7 -6 -13 3,804 3,478 3,252 -9 -6 -15 23,956 21,801 20,161 -9 -8 -16 U.S. Prisons Total Federal State Northeast Midwest Michigan Minnesota Missouri Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin (a) Prisons and jails form one unified system. 13 Appendix Figure 4 Prison population from 2019 to 2021, continued Percent change Year-end 2019 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 Year-end 2019 to midyear 2020 Midyear 2020 to late 2020 Year-end 2019 to late 2020 603,562 553,380 510,509 -8 -8 -15 Alabama 28,266 26,890 25,105 -5 -7 -11 Arkansas 17,759 16,552 16,085 -7 -3 -9 Delaware (a) 5,692 4,812 4,586 -15 -5 -19 Florida 96,009 89,382 81,168 -7 -9 -15 Georgia 55,556 50,891 46,315 -8 -9 -17 Kentucky 23,436 20,299 18,686 -13 -8 -20 Louisiana 31,609 28,213 26,543 -11 -6 -16 Maryland 18,686 17,038 14,963 -9 -12 -20 Mississippi 19,469 18,026 17,701 -7 -2 -9 North Carolina 34,510 31,506 29,192 -9 -7 -15 Oklahoma 25,712 24,039 22,625 -7 -6 -12 South Carolina 18,608 17,318 16,069 -7 -7 -14 Tennessee 26,539 24,566 22,994 -7 -6 -13 Texas (b) 158,820 145,579 133,024 -8 -9 -16 Virginia (b) 36,091 33,451 31,548 -7 -6 -13 West Virginia 6,800 4,818 3,905 -29 -19 -43 274,354 250,318 220,625 -9 -12 -20 4,475 4,313 4,250 -4 -1 -5 42,441 40,151 36,704 -5 -9 -14 California 125,507 114,966 96,499 -8 -16 -23 Colorado 19,714 17,441 15,670 -12 -10 -21 Hawaii (a) 5,179 4,449 4,099 -14 -8 -21 9,437 3,811 12,942 6,723 15,755 6,731 19,160 2,479 8,775 3,937 11,231 6,303 14,055 5,993 16,703 2,001 8,226 2,477 10,841 5,877 13,433 5,602 15,067 1,880 -7 3 -13 -6 -11 -11 -13 -19 -6 -37 -3 -7 -4 -7 -10 -6 -13 -35 -16 -13 -15 -17 -21 -24 South West Alaska (a) Arizona Idaho Montana (c) Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming (d) (a) Prisons and jails form one unified system. (b) Spring 2021 estimates based on people in DOC custody and the estimated number of people held in local jails. (c) Spring 2021 not fully comparable with prior years due to change in how Montana counts people in work release. (d) Spring 2021 estimate based on last known value and rate of change in states within region. 14 Appendix Figure 5 Prison incarceration rates from 2019 to 2021 Yearend 2019 Percent change YearYearend Midyear end 2019 to 2020 to 2019 to midyear spring spring 2020 2021 2021 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 437 53 385 391 48 343 361 45 315 -11 -9 -11 -8 -6 -8 -17 -15 -18 247 213 183 -14 -14 -26 345 164 119 193 210 228 358 259 258 357 276 135 104 176 184 190 324 211 220 321 249 122 95 159 135 155 294 207 193 298 -20 -18 -12 -9 -12 -17 -10 -18 -14 -10 -10 -9 -9 -10 -27 -18 -9 -2 -13 -7 -28 -25 -20 -18 -36 -32 -18 -20 -25 -17 Illinois Indiana 302 405 251 381 215 358 -17 -6 -14 -6 -29 -12 Iowa Kansas 294 349 249 313 239 298 -16 -10 -4 -5 -19 -15 Michigan Minnesota 381 177 352 146 330 131 -8 -18 -6 -11 -13 -26 Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin 424 292 235 426 430 411 390 275 160 393 392 370 373 271 197 369 367 342 -8 -6 -32 -8 -9 -10 -5 -2 23 -6 -6 -8 -12 -7 -16 -13 -15 -17 U.S. Prisons Total Federal States Northeast Connecticut (a) Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island (a) Vermont (a) Midwest (a) Prisons and jails form one unified system. 15 Appendix Figure 5 Prison incarceration rates from 2019 to 2021, continued Percent change YearYearend Midyear end 2019 to 2020 to 2019 to midyear spring spring 2020 2021 2021 Yearend 2019 Midyear 2020 Spring 2021 483 440 407 -9 -8 -16 576 588 585 447 523 525 680 309 654 329 650 361 389 548 423 379 350 535 550 486 415 475 451 606 309 609 302 607 338 355 499 388 269 319 500 534 463 377 432 415 570 242 598 280 571 314 333 456 365 218 281 -7 -7 -17 -7 -9 -14 -11 0 -7 -8 -7 -6 -9 -9 -8 -29 -9 -7 -3 -5 -9 -9 -8 -6 -22 -2 -7 -6 -7 -6 -9 -6 -19 -12 -13 -9 -21 -16 -17 -21 -16 -22 -9 -15 -12 -13 -14 -17 -14 -43 -20 Alaska (a) Arizona California Colorado Hawaii (a) Idaho 612 583 318 342 366 528 588 561 291 302 306 477 579 513 244 271 282 447 -4 -4 -8 -12 -16 -10 -1 -9 -16 -10 -8 -6 -5 -12 -23 -21 -23 -15 Montana (c) Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming (d) 357 420 321 374 210 252 428 363 362 298 332 183 217 347 228 352 278 317 171 196 325 2 -14 -7 -11 -13 -14 -19 -37 -3 -7 -4 -7 -10 -6 -36 -16 -13 -15 -18 -22 -24 South Alabama Arkansas Delaware (a) Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi North Carolina Oklahoma South Carolina Tennessee Texas (b) Virginia (b) West Virginia West (a) Prisons and jails form one unified system. (b) Spring 2021 estimates based on people in DOC custody and the estimated number of people held in local jails. (c) Spring 2021 not fully comparable with prior years due to change in how Montana counts people in work release. (d) Spring 2021 estimate based on last known value and rate of change in states within region. 16 Appendix Figure 6 Spring 2021 jail incarceration rates and percent changes since mid-2020, select states Urban Small/Midsized metro Suburban Rural Total Rate % Change Rate % Change Rate % Change Rate % Change Rate % Change California 140 21 165 24 192 16 225 16 156 20 Colorado 190 42 123 19 181 24 211 35 163 27 Florida 211 18 180 9 309 14 477 10 244 14 Georgia 277 18 249 20 372 13 432 16 315 17 Kentucky 180 15 346 15 450 21 576 16 439 17 117 9 73 2 94 10 149 9 85 5 - - - - 190 -1 277 4 219 1 New York 69 38 66 34 124 43 133 39 80 38 Tennessee 304 -6 252 -4 307 -3 401 1 316 -3 176 4 153 2 297 3 361 0 218 3 Massachusetts New Mexico Texas 17 Endnotes 1 2 See Todd Minton, Zhen Zeng, and Laura Maruschak, Impact of COVID-19 on the Local Jail Population, January-June 2020, (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2021) https://perma.cc/AK2J-88XS. See also Daniel Downs and Christian Henrichson, The Impact of COVID-19 on Jail Populations: A Closer Look At Bookings And Releases (Louisville, KY: Appriss Insights, 2020), https://perma.cc/USG5-G44P. All 2019, 2020, and 2021 jail and prison population estimates in this report are based on data collected by Vera, while 1970 through 1978 and 1983 through 2018 estimates are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Census of Jails, Annual Survey of Jails, and National Prisoner Statistics. See generally BJS, “Data Collection: Census of Jails,” https://perma.cc/P9928N2G; BJS, “Data Collection: Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ),” https://perma.cc/N5UQ-DSQQ; and BJS, “Data Collection: National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) Program,” https://perma.cc/4JJU-KLFC. The 1960 and 1980 jail estimates are from the U.S. Census; see Margaret Cahalan, Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850-1984 (Washington, DC: BJS, 1986), https://perma.cc/WDP7-35AA. Numbers in the body text may not sum due to rounding. For more detail on incarceration numbers in late 2020, see Jacob Kang-Brown, Chase Montagnet, and Jasmine Heiss, “People in Jail and Prison in 2020” (New York: The Vera Institute of Justice, 2021), https://perma.cc/RYZ5-PQGB. 3 Minton, Zeng, and Maruschak, Impact of COVID-19 on the Local Jail Population, January-June 2020, 2021; and E. Ann Carson, Prisoners in 2019 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2020), https://perma.cc/N7PA-LJNU. 4 Minton, Zeng, and Maruschak, Impact of COVID-19 on the Local Jail Population, January-June 2020, 2021, 1314. 5 Ibid. 6 See e.g., Mariame Kaba, “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police,” New York Times, June 12, 2020, https://perma.cc/RS52-Z932. For the extent of Black Lives Matter protests, see estimates of geographic range and number of participants in Larry Buchanan, Quoctrung Bui, and Jugal K. Patel, “Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History,” New York Times, July 3, 2020, https://perma.cc/JVJ8WAM3. 7 For a detailed look at this data, including information on COVID-19 cases, see Noelle Smart and Adam Garcia, “Tracking COVID-19 in Immigration Detention: A Dashboard of ICE Data,” database (New York: Vera Institute of Justice), https://perma.cc/8H4B-R97L. 8 Additional data and tables are available at www.vera.org/publications/people-in-jail-and-prisonin-spring-2021. 9 Midyear refers to late June or early July, and late year refers to the end of September or beginning of October. 10 These estimates are drawn from a large sample of local jails that, together, house approximately threequarters of the country’s jail population. Nevertheless, this is not a census and does not contain data on every local jail. It is possible that the populations in those missing jails could have changed in different ways than estimated by Vera. For instance, some unsampled rural areas may have seen less steep decarceration, and unsampled urban areas might have released a larger share of their populations. Dramatic differences, if they exist, might alter the reported estimates presented here. Vera’s analysis of the urban-rural continuum changes the six categories defined by the National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties to four. A county is labeled “urban” if it is one of the core counties of a metropolitan area with one million or more people and is labeled “suburban” if it is within the surrounding metropolitan area. Vera turns the remaining four categories into two by combining small and medium-sized metropolitan areas (“small and midsize metro”) and micropolitan and noncore areas (“rural”). 11 See e.g., events in St. Louis, Kiara Alfonseca, “St. Louis Inmates Protest Again Over Long Trial Wait Times, COVID-19 Fears,” ABC News, April 6, 2021, https://perma.cc/3974-EMS8; Shawn Arrajj, “Backlog of Felony Court Cases Grows as Officials Explore Options to Lower Jail Population,” Community Impact Newspaper (Houston, Texas), August 2, 2020, https://perma.cc/789H-JR57. 12 See Custody Division COVID-19 Factsheet at “Coronavirus Updates,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, archived October 2, 2020, https://web .archive.org/web/20201002164008/https://lasd.org/co vid19updates/; see also data available at Vera Institute 18 Wessler, “Inside the US Marshals’ Secretive, Deadly Detention Empire,” Mother Jones, Nov/Dec 2019, https://perma.cc/5GS5-KGXF. of Justice, “Care First L.A.: Tracking Jail Decarceration,” May 18, 2021, https://perma.cc/DA79C4ZR. 17 See e.g., Editorial, “Nebraska Should Pause on New Prison and Plan for Broad Criminal Justice Reform,” Omaha World-Herald, February 28, 2021, https://perma.cc/R47D-8KU3; Fred Knapp, “Lawmakers Advance Planning, But Not Building, A New Prison,” NET Nebraska, April 9, 2021, https://perma.cc/4QYR-C6GP. 13 See Oliver Hinds and Jack Norton, “No Chance Alamance: Immigrant Detention and Jail Expansion in the North Carolina Piedmont,” Vera Institute of Justice, July 28, 2020, https://perma.cc/2FY6-4P8N; and Jacob Kang-Brown and Jack Norton, “More than a Jail: Immigrant Detention and the Smell of Money,” Vera Institute of Justice, July 5, 2018, https://perma.cc/H8DC-CGRP. 18 See Brian Lyman, “Alabama Legislative Leaders See Possibility of Special Session on Prisons,” Montgomery Advertiser, May 19, 2021, https://perma.cc/VM7C-SD6X. 14 For more information on the use of local jails as immigrant detention facilities, see Kang-Brown and Norton, “More Than a Jail,” 2018. 19 This includes the six states—Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont—with state-operated, unified prison and jail systems. 15 See Public Law 116-260, https://perma.cc/4FC4-LMUF. 16 See Jack Norton and Jacob Kang-Brown, “If You Build It: How the Federal Government Fuels Rural Jail Expansion,” Vera Institute of Justice, January 10, 2020, https://perma.cc/WZ2A-VAJD; and Seth Freed 20 Jacob Kang-Brown and Jasmine Heiss, “COVID-19 Imperils People in Rural Jails,” Vera Institute of Justice, April 1, 2020, https://perma.cc/BRK2-XPQC. 19 Acknowledgments Thank you to Léon Digard and Abbi Leman for editorial support, Kica Matos and Cindy Reed for their review and feedback, and Jack Norton for research support. Thank you to the team from the New York University Public Safety Lab’s Jail Data Initiative for sharing data. Thank you to the ACLU and especially state chapters that shared jail data in Ohio. Thank you to the Indiana Public Defenders Council. Thank you to Grace Phillips at the New Mexico Association of Counties. This work would not be possible without the excellent work of researchers at the Bureau of Justice Statistics who maintain the National Jail Census and Annual Survey of Jails programs, especially Zhen Zeng. About citations As researchers and readers alike rely more and more on public knowledge made available through the Internet, “link rot” has become a widely acknowledged problem with creating useful and sustainable citations. To address this issue, the Vera Institute of Justice is experimenting with the use of Perma.cc (https://perma.cc/), a service that helps scholars, journals, and courts create permanent links to the online sources cited in their work. Credits © Vera Institute of Justice 2021. All rights reserved. An electronic version of this report is posted on Vera’s website at https://www.vera.org/publications/people-in-jail-and-prison-in-spring-2021. For more information about Vera, visit www.vera.org. For more information about this report, contact Jacob Kang-Brown, senior research associate, at jkangbrown@vera.org. Suggested citation Jacob Kang-Brown, Chase Montagnet, and Jasmine Heiss. People in Jail and Prison in Spring 2021. New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2021. 20