At the beginning of 2025, the United States had the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide, with around 1.8 million people in prison. China followed with around 100,000 fewer prisoners. Brazil followed in third. The incarceration problem in the U.S. The United States has an incredibly high number of incarcerated individuals. Therefore, the incarceration problem has become a widely contested issue, because it impacts disadvantaged people and minorities the most. Additionally, the prison system has become capitalized by outside corporations that fund prisons, but there is still a high cost to taxpayers. Furthermore, there has been an increase in the amount of private prisons that have been created. For-profit prison companies have come under scrutiny because of their lack of satisfactory staff and widespread lobbying. Violent offenses are the most common type of offense among prisoners in the U.S. Incarceration rates worldwide El Salvador had the highest rate of incarceration worldwide, at 1,659 prisoners per 100,000 residents as of February 2025. Cuba followed in second with 794 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. The incarceration rate is a better measure to use when comparing countries than the total prison populations, which will naturally have the most populous countries topping the list.

As of February 2025, El Salvador had the highest prisoner rate worldwide, with over 1,600 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population. Cuba, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, and the United States, rounded out the top five countries with the highest rate of incarceration. Homicides in El Salvador Interestingly, El Salvador, which long had the highest global homicide rates, has dropped out of the top 20 after a high number of gang members have been incarcerated. A high number of the countries with the highest homicide rate are located in Latin America. Prisoners in the United StatesThe United States is home to the largest number of prisoners worldwide. More than 1.8 million people were incarcerated in the U.S. at the beginning of 2025. In China, the estimated prison population totaled 1.69 million people that year. Other nations had far fewer prisoners. The largest share of the U.S. prisoners in federal correctional facilities were of African-American origin. As of 2020, there were 345,500 black, non-Hispanic prisoners, compared to 327,300 white, non-Hispanic inmates. The U.S. states with the largest number of prisoners in 2022 were Texas, California, and Florida. Over 160,000 prisoners in state facilities were sentenced for rape or sexual assault, which was the most common cause of imprisonment. The second most common was murder, followed by aggravated or simple assault.

Snapshot img

Prison Management Systems Market Size 2025-2029

The prison management systems market size is forecast to increase by USD 412.2 billion, at a CAGR of 5.8% between 2024 and 2029.

Prison management systems have witnessed significant growth in recent years, driven by key trends such as innovative upgrades to software and increasing government expenditure on public safety. These systems help manage various aspects of prison operations, including inmate records, security, and rehabilitation programs. However, the high implementation and maintenance costs remain a challenge for the market. The adoption of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and biometric identification is expected to enhance the functionality and efficiency of prison management systems. Additionally, the growing focus on reducing recidivism rates and improving prison conditions will further fuel market growth. Despite these opportunities, the high initial investment and ongoing expenses associated with implementing and maintaining these systems may hinder market expansion.

What will be the size of the Market During the Forecast Period?

Request Free Sample

Prison management systems have become an essential component of correctional facilities worldwide. These systems facilitate effective inmate management, ensuring the safety and security of staff and inmates. Key functionalities include inmate information management, tracking, and scheduling for visitation, medical records, and incident reporting. Security is a top priority in prison management, with biometric systems playing a significant role. Fingerprint scans or facial recognition technology help maintain accurate records of prisoners, enhancing security and reducing the risk of escapes. Biometric identification also streamlines staff management, ensuring only authorized personnel access restricted areas. Financial management is another crucial aspect of prison management systems.
These solutions enable efficient tracking of commissary sales, inmate funds, and other financial transactions. Analysis and reporting features provide valuable insights into prison operations, enabling prison authorities to make data-driven decisions. Communication is essential for maintaining order and safety within correctional facilities. Prison management systems offer features like instant messaging and email services, allowing staff to coordinate effectively and respond promptly to inmate requests or emergencies. CCTV cameras and software solutions further bolster security by providing real-time monitoring and recording capabilities. Medical facility management and case management modules ensure that inmates receive proper care and attention, while incident reporting features help prison authorities maintain records of disciplinary actions and rehabilitation programs.

How is this market segmented and which is the largest segment?

The market research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD million' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.

Deployment

  On-premises
  Cloud-based


Component

  Solution
  Services


Geography

  North America

    Canada
    US


  Europe

    Germany
    UK
    France


  APAC

    China
    India


  Middle East and Africa



  South America

    Brazil

By Deployment Insights

The on-premises segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

In the market, on-premises deployment is an option where organizations purchase and install the software on their servers. IT specialists manage and maintain it within the organization. However, the market share for this segment is projected to decrease due to the high cost of implementation and limited scalability. On-premises systems are typically priced under a one-time perpetual license fee, which includes recurring charges for support, training, and updates. Prisons also bear additional expenses for monitoring, maintenance, upgrades, and end-user training. companies offer installation, data migration, and employee training services during implementation. Key features of on-premises prison management systems include visitation scheduling, medical records management, incident reporting, commissary management, safety and security, suicide prevention, advanced security equipment, smart locks, video surveillance, intrusion detection, alarms & notifications, and prisoner information management with biometric details.

Get a glance at the market report of share of various segments Request Free Sample

The on-premises segment was valued at USD 626.60 million in 2019 and showed a gradual increase during the forecast period.

Regional Analysis

North America is estimated to contribute 36% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period.

Technavio's ana

This dataset lists inmates incarcerated at Cockatoo Island prison in Sydney (Australia) between 1847-1869. It offers insights into how the colonial criminal justice system operated after New South Wales’ transition from a penal colony to a ‘free’ colony when transportation ceased in 1840. It is a useful tool for genealogists tracing the lives of their criminal ancestors and for historians of crime and punishment researching nineteenth-century Australia. The dataset includes prisoners' names and aliases, their ship of arrival, place of origin, details of their colonial conviction(s) (trial place, court, offence, sentence), date(s) admitted to Cockatoo Island, and when and how they were discharged from Cockatoo Island. In some cases, it also includes prisoners' place of origin, occupation, biometric information (height, eye/hair colour, complexion, scars, tattoos), 'condition upon arrival' (convict or free), and (for convicts) details of their original conviction in Britain or Ireland. As a UNESCO World Heritage 'Convict Site' Cockatoo Island is best known as a site of secondary punishment for recidivist convicts, especially those transferred from Norfolk Island. This dataset demonstrates the diversity of the prison population: including nominally free convicts (ticket-of-leave holders), migrants from Britain, China and other Australian colonies drawn in by the gold rush, exiles from Port Phillip, Aboriginal Australians convicted during frontier warfare, colonial-born white Australians (including bushrangers), and black, Indian and American sailors visiting Sydney.

Significant attention has been paid to the more than 160,000 British and Irish convicts who were transported Australia as colonists between 1787 and 1868. Much less has been said about those punished within the criminal justice system that arose in the wake of New South Wales' transition from 'penal' to 'free' colony (Finnane, 1997: x-xi). Cockatoo Island prison opened in 1839, a year before convict transportation to New South Wales ceased, and was intended to punish the most recidivist and violent of the transported convicts. This archetype has prevailed in historical discourses, and they have been described as 'criminal lunatics... [and] criminals incapable of reform' (Parker, 1977: 61); 'the most desperate and abandoned characters' (O'Carrigan, 1994: 64); and people of 'doubtful character' (NSW Government Architect's Office, 2009: 29). Yet, this was far from the truth. My analysis of 1666 prisoners arriving between 1839-52 show they were overwhelming non-violent offenders, tried for minor property crimes at lower courts. They were also far more diverse population than commonly recognised, including Indigenous Australian, Chinese and black convicts alongside majority British and Irish men (Harman, 2012). This project will make publicly available extremely detailed records relating to Cockatoo Island's prisoners to show people firsthand exactly who made up the inmate population. The digital version of the original registers will include information on convicts' criminal record, but also their job, whether they were married or had children, and even what they looked like. It will also be a name-searchable database so family historians can search for their ancestors, who may have been incarcerated on the island. As it stands, they will be able find information online about ancestors who were transported as long as they remained in the 'convict system', but they may seem to disappear as soon as they are awarded their ticket-of-leave and become 'free'. However, many former convicts, and free immigrants, to New South Wales were convicted locally, and these records can give us information about their lives within the colony. The type of data included in these registers will also allow researchers to investigate questions including: (1) were convicts more likely to offend again than free immigrants? (2) Were the children of convicts more likely to offend than others? (3) Did the influx of mostly Chinese migrants during the gold rush actually lead to a crime-wave, as reported in the press? (4) Were laws introduced between 1830 and 1853, actually effective at prosecuting bushrangers (highwaymen)? (5) Was the criminal-judicial system in Australia more rehabilitative, despite developing out of a harsher convict transportation system? Alongside the dataset, the website will include 'life-biographies' of individual convicts to show you how this dataset can be used to piece together a life-story. It also to warns against understanding a real-life person only through the records of their conviction. There many of fascinating stories to tell, including those 'John Perry' ('Black Perry') the prizewinning boxer; the love story of the 'Two Fredericks'; and Tan, the Chinese gold-digger who resisted his incarceration. In addition, there will be teaching resources for secondary school children and undergraduate university students who want to engage directly...

As of August 8, three executions were carried out by Alabama and two executions were carried out by Missouri in 2024. Another two executions were carried out in Oklahoma in the same year. Death penalty Since 2015, Texas has been the state most likely to perform the most executions in the United States. However, the U.S. government and military also enforce death penalties. Since 1976, 1,392 executions in the country have been conducted through lethal injection. The United States is one of the countries around the world still using capital punishment. It is estimated that China executed a thousand prisoners in 2022, while Iran executed approximately 314 people . Some 55 percent of U.S. citizens stated that they thought capital punishment was morally acceptable . About 35 percent of death penalty supporters reasoned that this form of punishment was “an eye for an eye” due to the crime, while 14 percent of supporters believed that the death penalty could save taxpayers money due to costs associated with prisons. In general, most states require some form of first-degree murder as the crime that is punishable by death. However, 40 percent of denouncers of the death penalty stated that it was wrong to take a life, while 17 percent reasoned that the persons may be wrongly convicted. Support for capital punishment reached a peak in 1991 at 76 percent of the population agreeing.

Chinese Job Skills Dataset for Former Prisoners

This dataset contains simplified Chinese descriptions of skills that can be used in CVs and job applications by individuals who were formerly incarcerated. Originally created in Arabic, translated to English and then Chinese using Hugging Face models.

  Fields

Input_ZH: The raw skill or task in Chinese Description_ZH: Professional wording for job search

  License

CC BY 4.0 — you are free to use and remix with… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/xanyang1020/Chinese_job_skills_dataset_for_former_prisoners.

The United States joined the Korean War in 1950 on the side of South Korea in its fight against the communist forces of North Korea. The conflict was one of the first flare-ups of the Cold War (1947-1991), the global struggle between the United States and its allies against communist states led by the Soviet Union, and the first full-scale military engagements for the U.S. after World War II. Both sides suffered heavy losses from the war, with the North Koreans losing the most troops of any of the participants, with approximately 520,000 fatalities. Between August 1950 and September 1953, 7,614 North Korean or Chinese soldiers died in American custody as Prisoners of War (P.O.W). The subject of P.O.Ws would become a major sticking point during the negotiations to end the war, as neither side could agree to a mutually satisfactory way to exchange prisoners. This was particularly exacerbated by the arbitrary nature of the partition of Korea into two states, as many people on either side of the border were aligned or loyal to a state in which they were not resident (particularly with South Korean communists).

As of November 2022, 199 foreign inmates in the Philippines were Chinese nationals. Meanwhile, 24 were Taiwanese, 19 were Korean, and 12 were American inmates in prison facilities as of this period.