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7.12 Who Goes to Prison?

David Carter; Kate McLean; and Michelle Holcomb

The types of people that end up in prison are quite different from individuals that go to jail. Almost all people that go to prisons in the United States are people that have been convicted of felony-level crimes and will be serving more than a year.

Pie chart showing the number of people locked up on a given day in the United States by facility type and the underlying offense using the newest data available in March 2025.
Individuals incarcerated in state and federal jails and prisons as of 2025. Consider the underlying offenses for individuals in Federal Prisons and Jails. How many people are locked up in the United States? by the Prison Policy Initiative is used under fair use. 

Focusing in on the left side of the graphic, there are roughly 1,090,000 State Prisoners. More than half (62%) are incarcerated for violent crimes. Property crimes and drug crimes represent the 2nd and 3rd most common offenses for the state prisoners. This graphic also shows us how many more individuals are in state versus federal institutions, with “only” 203,000 individuals incarcerated in the latter group. You may also notice how drug offenders are represented at a much higher level in federal institutions – over 42% of all federal inmates (versus 12% of all state inmates.)

Roughly 93% of prison inmates – compared to jail inmates – are male. In jail, that percentage is roughly 82% male. Across all detention facilities, there are stark racial disparities as well, as shown in the graph below and discussed further in subsequent chapters.

Chart comparing the racial and ethnic distribution of the total U.S. population with that of the incarcerated population. White people make up the majority of the total U.S. population, but a minority of the prison population. Black and American Indian and Alaska Native people make up a disproportionately larger share of the incarcerated population than they do the total U.S. population. Data is the newest national data available that includes all types of incarceration and uses data from the 2023 Census Bureau American Community Survey.
Black Americans are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated.  Racial and ethnic disparities in correctional facilities from the Prison Policy Initiative is used under fair use.

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