Presents data on prison and jail inmates, collected from National Prisoner Statistics counts and the Annual Survey of Jails in 2003. This annual report provides for each State and the Federal system, the number of inmates and the overall incarceration rate per 100,000 residents. It offers trends since 1995 and percentage changes in prison populations since midyear and yearend 2002. The midyear report presents the number of prison inmates held in private facilities and the number of prisoners under 18 years of age held by State correctional authorities. It includes total numbers for prison and jail inmates by gender, race, and Hispanic origin as well as counts of jail inmates by conviction status and confinement status. The report also provides findings on rated capacity of local jails, percent of capacity occupied, and capacity added. Standard errors for jail estimates are provided in the appendix tables of the electronic version of this report.
- Prison population increased by 40,983, the largest increase in 4 years
- At midyear 2003, a total of 3,006 State prisoners were under age 18. Adult jails held a total of 6,869 persons under age 18.
- Local jails were operating 6% below their rated capacity. In contrast, at yearend 2002 State prisons were operating 1% and 17% above capacity, and Federal prisons were 33% about their rate capacity.
- In the year ending June 30, 2003, the smaller State prison systems had the greatest percentage increase: Vermont (up 12.2%), Minnesota (up 9.4%), and Maine (up 9.1%).