"At yearend 2021, an estimated 5,444,900 persons were under the supervision of adult correctional systems in the United States, a decline of 1% (down 61,100 persons) from yearend 2020.1 About 1 in 48 adult U.S. residents (2.1%) were under some form of correctional supervision at the end of 2021. The rate of persons on probation or parole fell to a 21-year low in 2021 (1,440 per 100,000 adult U.S. residents), after declining each year since its peak in 2007 (2,240 per 100,000) (figure 1). The rate at which persons were in prison or jail increased for the first time since 2005, rising from 660 per 100,000 U.S. residents in 2020 to 680 per 100,000 in 2021, though it remained below the rate preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (810 per 100,000 in 2019)."
E. Ann Carson, PhD, and Rich Kluckow, DSW. Correctional Populations in the United States, 2021 - Statistical Tables. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Washington, DC. February 2023. NCJ305542.
