This visualization by Anthony Calabrese shows how many people are in prison, jail or on probation in the U.S. and how those numbers have changed in recent decades.
About this Viz
Here is what Anthony has to say about the viz:
The latest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that there were more than seven million people in the correctional system as of 2008, or one in every 31 adults. Of these, 30 percent were in prison or jail, and the actual number of prison or jail inmates more than tripled since 1980.
Despite significant gains since 1980, the data show that growth in the total correctional population has slowed since 2000. The correctional population increased by 0.5 percent during 2008, about a third of the average annual rate of growth of 1.6 percent since 2000.
The decline in the growth of the prison population that occurred during 2008 also continues a declining trend. From 2000 to 2008, the data show that the prison population increased an average of 1.8 percent annually, less than a third of the average annual rate of 6.5 percent during the 1990s.
