People in Jail and Prison in 2020 Jacob Kang-Brown, Chase Montagnet, and Jasmine Heiss January 2021 Summary The United States saw an unprecedented drop in total Figure 1 incarceration between 2019 and 2020. Triggered by the The number of people incarcerated in jails and onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and pressure from prisons from 1980 to late 2020 advocates to reduce incarceration, local jails drove the 2,500,000 initial decline, although prisons also made reductions. From summer to fall 2020, prison populations declined 2,000,000 further, but jails began to refill, showing the fragility of Total Incarceration decarceration. Jails in rural counties saw the biggest initial 1,500,000 drops, but still incarcerate people at double the rate of urban and suburban areas. Despite the historic drop in the State & Federal 1,000,000 Prisons number of people incarcerated, the decrease was neither substantial nor sustained enough to be considered an 500,000 adequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Local Jails incarceration in the United States remains a global aberration. 0 Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) researchers collected 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 data on the number of people in local jails and state and The number of people incarcerated in state and federal federal prisons at both midyear and fall 2020 to provide prisons and local jails in the United States dropped from timely information on how incarceration is changing in the around 2.1 million in 2019 to 1.8 million by mid-2020—a 1 United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vera 14 percent decrease. This decline held through the fall. This researchers estimated the national jail population using a represents a 21 percent decline from a peak of 2.3 million sample of 1,558 jail jurisdictions and the national prison people in prison and jail in 2008. State and federal prisons population based on a sample of 49 states and the Federal held an estimated 1,311,100 people at midyear 2020—down Bureau of Prisons. Vera also collected data on people 124,400, or 9 percent, from 2019. Prisons declined by an incarcerated and detained by the U.S. Marshals Service additional 61,800 people in late 2020, bringing the total (USMS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). prison population to 1,249,300 people, a 13 percent decline Both ICE and USMS house people in jails and prisons from 2019 to late 2020 (the end of September or beginning Generally, jails and prisons do not make race and of October). (See Methodology on page 10 for details of the gender data available. However, preliminary results from statistical analyses.) other studies suggest that race inequity in incarceration may be worsening during the pandemic.2 Table 1 Summary of incarcerated populations and changes by region Population Midyear Between 2019 & 2020 Late Since midyear 2020 2019 2020 Change % change 2020 Change % change Total 2,115,000 1,818,700 -296,300 -14 1,814,800 -3,900 0 U.S. Prisons 1,435,500 1,311,100 -124,400 -9 1,249,300 -61,800 -5 U.S. Jails 758,419 575,500 -182,919 -24 633,200 57,700 10 Urban 166,979 127,800 -39,179 -23 141,200 13,400 10 Suburban 146,976 117,000 -29,976 -20 125,800 8,800 8 Small/Midsize metro 260,169 206,800 -53,369 -21 231,700 24,900 12 Rural 184,295 123,900 -60,395 -33 134,500 10,600 9 Local jails had steeper population declines than declines were in rural areas, where the jail population prisons in the first part of 2020. From June 2019 to June dropped by 60,400 (33 percent) between midyear 2019 2020, the jail population decreased by 182,900 people, or and midyear 2020, and subsequently grew by 10,600 (9 24 percent.3 However, from June to September, jail percent) between midyear 2020 and late 2020. Urban populations increased substantially, growing 10 percent areas and small and midsized metro areas had smaller in just three months. By late 2020, there were 633,200 incarceration declines followed by slightly higher people in local jails, up from an estimated 575,500 people subsequent growth from June to September 2020. Even at midyear. (See Figure 1, above.) In total, the national jail with dramatic declines, rural areas still have the highest population declined 17 percent from midyear 2019 to late incarceration rates by far. Three out of five people 2020, with jail incarceration trending upward in recent incarcerated in local jails are in smaller cities and rural months. communities. (See Table 1 above for a summary of jail The national jail population counts hide stark incarceration population counts and percent changes by divergence across the urban-to-rural continuum. In the geographic type, and Table 2, below for summary past year, the largest and most sustained jail population incarceration rate information.) Table 2 Summary of incarceration rates and changes by region Rates per 100,000 Residents Midyear Between 2019 & 2020 Late Since midyear 2020 2019 2020 Change % change 2020 Change % change Total 644 551 -93 -14 549 -2 0 U.S. Prisons 437 397 -40 -9 378 -19 -5 U.S. Jails 237 179 -58 -24 197 18 10 Urban 168 128 -40 -24 141 13 10 Suburban 181 143 -38 -21 154 11 7 Small/Midsize metro 276 218 -58 -21 244 26 12 Rural 410 274 -136 -33 297 23 8 Table 1 and 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 on page 10. Figure 1 source note: The 2019 and 2020 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 Program,” https://perma.cc/P992-8N2G; BJS, “Data Collection: Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ) Program,” 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 Cahalan, Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850-1984 (Washington, DC: BJS, 1986), https://perma.cc/WDP7-35AA. outbreaks in jails and prisons.6 Advocates called for Introduction releases from jails and prisons as a public health and racial justice measure.7 But no level of government took The COVID-19 pandemic transformed daily life in the adequate mitigation measures, if they made any effort at United States and brought the dehumanizing and life- all. Many correctional officers, apparently fearing for shortening nature of incarceration further into the light. their health, left their jobs to return to the safety of their Jails and prisons have been, and continue to be, homes; for example, after large outbreaks, around one- devastated by a virus that spreads in close quarters. Many third of the jobs are vacant at Arkansas’s two largest of the largest outbreaks of COVID-19 have been tied to prisons.8 Incarcerated people, by definition, do not have prisons and large jails: 3,336 cases at a crowded state this freedom to protect themselves, although some took prison in California’s Central Valley, and 3,216 cases at matters into their own hands. As one man who escaped a the county jail in Houston, Texas.4 Smaller facilities have federal prison told reporters, “I signed up for a jail had bad outbreaks too: 229 cases at a jail meant to hold sentence, not a death sentence.”9 365 people in Cascade County, Montana—the first New data collected by Vera and detailed in this outbreak in the region.5 In March 2020, scientists and report reveals that as the year wore on, the United States experts sounded the alarm about the risk of COVID-19 saw an unprecedented drop in total incarceration. The 2 historic changes in prison and jail populations triggered and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Vera also by the COVID-19 pandemic came during a national wave collected data on immigrants detained by Immigration of Black Lives Matter demonstrations and accompanying and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who were held in local demands to change the criminal legal system in the jails, private prisons, and dedicated immigration United States.10 As a result, there was far more pressure detention facilities.16 on officials to release people from prison and jail in 2020 Vera’s national prison statistics are estimates based than in prior years. Local jails drove the initial decline, on data from 49 states and the BOP, which together held although prisons also made modest reductions. From 97 percent of the people incarcerated in prison in 2019 summer to fall 2020, prison populations declined further, (jurisdictional data from Virginia was not available). Jail but jails began to refill, showing the fragility of statistics are derived from a sample of about 1,600 jails. population reductions. Jails in rural counties saw the These include all county jails in 13 states and a sample of biggest initial drops, but still incarcerate people at double jails in other states. Vera researchers used these counts to the rate of urban and suburban areas. Despite the historic estimate the national total. The jails in Vera’s sample held drop in the number of people incarcerated, the United almost three out of every four people incarcerated in jails States still incarcerates a large share of its population. in 2013, the last time the BJS reported information for all The decrease was neither substantial nor sustained jails in the United States.