In 2022, the incarceration rate of African Americans in local jails in the United States was 558 incarcerations per 100,000 of the population -- the highest rate of any race or ethnicity. The second-highest incarceration rate was among American Indians/Alaska Natives, at 391 incarcerations per 100,000 of the population.

As of 2022, Black people were more likely than those of other races to be imprisoned in the United States. In that year, the rate of imprisonment for Black men stood at 1,826 per 100,000 of the population. For Black women, this rate stood at 64 per 100,000 of the population.

In 2022, about 1,826 Black men per 100,000 residents were imprisoned in the United States. This rate was much lower for Black women, at 64 per 100,000 residents. The overall imprisonment rate in 2022 stood at 355 per 100,000 Americans.

This data collection includes tabulations of annual adult admissions to federal and state correctional institutions by race. Data are provided for the years 1926 to 1986 and include tabulations for prisons in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as federal prison totals and United States totals. The figures were derived from a voluntary reporting program in which each state, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported summary and detailed statistics as a part of the National Prisoner Statistics series. Individual state and United States population figures according to racial categories also are provided.

In 2024, there were approximately 63,103 white prisoners in England and Wales, compared with 10,624 Black prisoners, and 7,067 Asian prisoners.

The data contain records of sentenced offenders committed to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) during fiscal year 2009. The data include commitments of United States District Court, violators of conditions of release (e.g., parole, probation, or supervised release violators), offenders convicted in other courts (e.g., military or District of Columbia courts), and persons admitted to prison as material witnesses or for purposes of treatment, examination, or transfer to another authority. These data include variables that describe the offender, such as age, race, citizenship, as well as variables that describe the sentences and expected prison terms. The data file contains original variables from the Bureau of Prisons' SENTRY database, as well as "SAF" variables that denote subsets of the data. These SAF variables are related to statistics reported in the Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, Tables 7.9-7.16. Variables containing identifying information (e.g., name, Social Security Number) were replaced with blanks, and the day portions of date fields were also sanitized in order to protect the identities of individuals. These data are part of a series designed by the Urban Institute (Washington, DC) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Data and documentation were prepared by the Urban Institute.

In 2019, 2,144 white state prison inmates died in the United States. A further 1,174 Black or African American inmates died in that same year. In total, 3,853 United States state prison inmates died in 2019.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics This series of studies contains a descriptive analysis of federal and state-operated adult confinement and correctional facilities nationwide. The census included prisons, penitentiaries, and correctional facilities; boot camps; community corrections; prison farms; reception, diagnostic, and classification centers; road camps; forestry and conservation camps; youthful offender facilities (except in California); vocational training facilities; prison hospitals; and correctional drug and alcohol treatment facilities. Variables include physical security, age of facilities, functions of facilities, programs, inmate work assignments, staff employment, facilities under court order/consent decree for conditions of confinement, capital and operating expenditures, custody level of residents/inmates, one-day and average daily population counts, race/ethnicity of inmates, inmate deaths, special inmate counts, and assaults and incidents by inmates. The institution is the unit of analysis. The Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities is produced every 5 years.

The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) data collection began in 1926 in response to a congressional mandate to gather information on persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Originally under the auspices of the United States Census Bureau, the collection moved to the Bureau of Prisons in 1950, and then in 1971 to the National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) which was established in 1979. Since 1979, the Census Bureau has been the NPS data collection agent. The NPS is administered to 51 respondents. Before 2001, the District of Columbia was also a respondent, but responsibility for housing the District of Columbia's sentenced prisoners was transferred to the federal Bureau of Prisons, and by yearend 2001 the District of Columbia no longer operated a prison system. The NPS provides an enumeration of persons in state and federal prisons and collects data on key characteristics of the nation's prison population. NPS has been adapted over time to keep pace with the changing information needs of the public, researchers, and federal, state, and local governments.

This statistic shows the distribution of adults in federal correctional services in Canada in the fiscal year of 2022, by race. 51.8 percent of the adult offender population in federal correctional services in Canada were Caucasian in the fiscal year of 2022.

This data collection contains information gathered in a two-part survey that was designed to assess institutional conditions in state and federal prisons and in halfway houses. It was one of a series of data-gathering efforts undertaken during the 1970s to assist policymakers in assessing and overcoming deficiencies in the nation's correctional institutions. This particular survey was conducted in response to a mandate set forth in the Crime Control Act of 1976. Data were gathered via self-enumerated questionnaires that were mailed to the administrators of all 558 federal and state prisons and all 405 community-based prerelease facilities in existence in the United States in 1979. Part 1 contains the results of the survey of state and federal adult correctional systems, and Part 2 contains the results of the survey of community-based prerelease facilities. The two files contain similar variables designed to tap certain key aspects of confinement: (1) inmate (or resident) counts by sex and by security class, (2) age of facility and rated capacity, (3) spatial density, occupancy, and hours confined for each inmate's (or resident's) confinement quarters, (4) composition of inmate (or resident) population according to race, age, and offense type, (5) inmate (or resident) labor and earnings, (6) race, age, and sex characteristics of prison (or half-way house) staff, and (7) court orders by type of order and pending litigation. Other data (contained in both files) include case ID number, state ID number, name of facility, and operator of facility (e.g., federal, state, local, or private).

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This is a qualitative data collection.

The project examined individual and collective identities in prisons. In particular, it focused on how ethnic and masculine identities have a bearing on prisoners' social relationships. The study had three main aims:

• to examine the role of ethnic identities in shaping social relationships in prison, and compare this with relations in prisoners' home communities
• to determine how different racialised masculine identities are expressed in terms of, for example, ethnicity, religion, age, nationality and regionality
• to assess the influence of institutional practices on individuals and group identities, the extent and nature of prisoner solidarity, and provide evidence of social hierarchies and gang membership that are influenced by identity

The project comprised two ethnographic studies conducted in Kent, at a male young offenders' institution (Her Majesty's Young Offenders' Institution (HMYOI) Rochester) and an adult male prison (Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Maidstone). Two main research methods were used: interaction and observation of prison life over an eight-month period; and semi-structured interviews with 60 young adult prisoners and 50 adult prisoners.
Activities at the two research sites were as follows:

• at HMP Maidstone, which is a Category C prison for adult men, the researchers observed prisoner social relations through informal interactions with prisoners on the wings, interacting with them at work, in classes, during association, exercise, worship and visiting times. Fifty prisoners agreed to be interviewed, and five also took part in a focus group interview
• At HMYOI Rochester, a prison for young men aged 18-21 years, the researchers observed prisoner social relations through informal interactions with prisoners on the wings, interacting with them at work, in classes, during associations, exercise, worship, and visiting times. Sixty prisoners at Rochester agreed to be interviewed.

This collection comprises 111 interview transcripts. Users should note that access to these data requires express permission of the depositor.

Further information may be found on the Ethnicity, Identity, and Social Relations in Prison ESRC project award web page, and on the Identities and Social Action research programme web site.


Main Topics:

Topics covered in the interviews include background and family circumstances, educational and employment history, social networks and friendships, significant personal relationships, strategies for coping with life while in prison, interaction with other prisoners, and observations on social structures and networks based around ethnicity/religion in prison.

This collection provides nationally representative data on persons held prior to trial and on convicted offenders serving sentences in local jails or awaiting transfer to state prisons. Data cover demographic characteristics of jail inmates (sex, race, ethnicity, Hispanic origin, employment), current offenses and sentences, detention status, trial, bail, characteristics of victims, criminal histories, incident characteristics, socioeconomic circumstances, jail conditions and activities, and prior drug and alcohol use and treatment. Part 1, Numeric Data, contains numeric data for all questions in the survey, while Part 2, Alphanumeric Data, consists of nonnumeric answers to the "Other, Specify" selection available for some of the questions.

The data contain records of sentenced offenders released from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) during fiscal year 2003. The data include commitments of United States District Court, violators of conditions of release (e.g., parole, probation, or supervised release violators), offenders convicted in other courts (e.g., military or District of Columbia courts), and persons admitted to prison as material witnesses or for purposes of treatment, examination, or transfer to another authority. Records of offenders who exit federal prison temporarily, such as for transit to another location, to serve a weekend sentence, or for health care, are not included in the exiting cohort. These data include variables that describe the offender, such as age, race, citizenship, as well as variables that describe the sentences and expected prison terms. The data file contains original variables from the Bureau of Prisons' SENTRY database, as well as "SAF" variables that denote subsets of the data. These SAF variables are related to statistics reported in the Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, Tables 7.9-7.16. Variables containing identifying information (e.g., name, Social Security Number) were replaced with blanks, and the day portions of date fields were also sanitized in order to protect the identities of individuals. These data are part of a series designed by the Urban Institute (Washington, DC) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Data and documentation were prepared by the Urban Institute.

This dataset provides information on offenders released from Iowa prisons during the past 10 fiscal years. It includes the fiscal year when an offender was released from prison, their age groups, sex, race - ethnicity, closure type, convicting offense with description and the number of months served.

In 2021, around 221,200 Black/African American people were confined to local jails in the United States. In that year, Black and African American people were confined to local jails at a higher rate than any other ethnicity.

This study was conducted to provide a consistent and comprehensive description of convicted persons' entrance into and departure from correctional custody and correctional supervision. To accomplish this goal, data were gathered from official state prison records on topics such as race, sex, and age of inmates, length of time in jail, length of time in prison, and type of offense committed. The data were collected from the state prison systems of 35 states, as well as the Federal Prison System, the California Youth Authority, and the District of Columbia.