Darrell K. Gilliard, Allen J. Beck, Ph.D., Bureau of Justice Statistics

August 18, 1996    NCJ 161132

This Bulletin reports that there were almost 1.6 million men and women in the nation's jails and prisons last year. State and federal prisons, which primarily house convicted felons serving sentences of more than a year, held about two-thirds of the incarcerated population (1,078,357 inmates) at the end of 1995. The other third were confined in locally operated jails, which normally hold people awaiting trial or serving sentences of a year or less. On June 30, 1995, the most recent date for which jail data are available, 507,044 people were in local jails and another 34,869 were being supervised by jail authorities in programs such as electronic monitoring, house detention, community service, or alternative work programs. For the first time, the Bulletin provides the number of inmates who were under jail supervision but not confined (including persons in community-based programs, such as electronic monitoring, house arrest, community service, and work release). Trends in the total number of persons incarcerated and the rate per 100,000 adults are also presented. Both jail and prison inmate data are collected and published annually by BJS.

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