"U.S. Prison Decline: Insufficient to Undo Mass Incarceration"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new short report from The Sentencing Project authored by Nazgol Ghandnoosh. The charts and graphs alone make this piece a must-read, and here is some of its text:

By yearend 2018, the U.S. prison population reached 1.4 million people, declining by 9% since reaching its peak level in 2009.  This follows a nearly 700% growth in the prison population between 1972 and 2009.  This research brief reveals significant variation across states in decarceration and highlights the overall modest pace of reforms relative to the massive imprisonment buildup.

This analysis is based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on people serving sentences greater than one year.  Since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, a number of states and the federal system have made additional, albeit modest, reductions in their prison populations. This analysis underscores the need to address excessively high levels of imprisonment amidst a public health crisis.

All but six states have reduced their prison populations since reaching their peak levels.  For twenty-five states, the reduction in imprisonment levels was less than 10%.  The federal prison population was downsized by 17% relative to its peak level in 2011.  Seven states lead the nation, having decarcerated by over 30% since reaching their peak imprisonment levels: New Jersey, Alaska, Connecticut, New York, Alabama, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  These prison population reductions are the result of a mix of changes in policy and practice designed to reduce prison admissions and lengths of stay.  But six states had their highest ever prison populations in 2018: Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oregon.

Although 44 states and the federal system have reduced their prison populations since reaching peak levels, the pace of reform has been slow to reverse nearly four decades of aggressive annual imprisonment growth.  At the pace of decarceration since 2009, averaging 1% annually, it will take 65 years — until 2085 — to cut the U.S. prison population in half.  Clearly, waiting over six decades to substantively alter a system that is out of step with the world and is racially biased is unacceptable.

A few recent related posts:

• Bureau of Justice Statistics, reporting its "new" data from end of 2018, highlights "US Imprisonment Rate At Its Lowest Since 1996"
• Effective overview of highlights (or lowlights) of latest BJS data on prisons and jail at end of 2018
• "People in Prison in 2019" ... as well as a partial 2020 update