{"id":6182,"date":"2024-01-02T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T14:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/votingaccessforall.org\/?p=6182"},"modified":"2024-01-12T09:59:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T14:59:15","slug":"why-did-prison-and-jail-populations-grow-in-2022-and-what-comes-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/votingaccessforall.org\/es\/2024\/01\/why-did-prison-and-jail-populations-grow-in-2022-and-what-comes-next\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfPor qu\u00e9 creci\u00f3 la poblaci\u00f3n carcelaria y penitenciaria en 2022 y qu\u00e9 viene despu\u00e9s?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This article was originally published by Prison Policy Initiative as “Why did prison and jail populations grow in 2022 \u2014 and what comes next?<\/a>,” authored by Wendy Sawyer<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) recently released its annual reports on prison and jail populations in 2022, noting that the combined state and federal prison populations had increased for the first time in almost a decade and that jail populations had reached 90% of their pre-pandemic level. But what\u2019s behind these trends? Do they just reflect another year of post-pandemic \u201crebound\u201d or longer-term changes in crime or punishment? And what do these trends suggest about the road ahead for those working to end mass incarceration?<\/p>\n

To answer these questions, we looked closely at the annual BJS data as well as 2022 crime and victimization data and criminal court case processing to get a better idea of the reasons behind the new numbers. We also looked at some more recent 2023 jail and prison data to see whether the 2022 uptick appears to have continued in 2023 (spoiler: it does).<\/i> Finally, we looked at reports from over 20 states to see how states themselves understand these trends, and where they foresee their correctional populations heading in the future.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we conclude that these populations are increasing and can be expected to continue to climb in the next few years, not because of changes in crime but because (a) courts have largely recovered from the slowdowns caused by the pandemic and (b) many states have rolled back sensible criminal legal system reforms \u2014 or worse, have enacted legislation that will keep more people behind bars longer, despite decades<\/a> of<\/a> evidence<\/a> that such policies don\u2019t enhance public safety.<\/p>\n

Upward trends in prison and jail populations in 2022<\/h2>\n

Prisons<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The new BJS data<\/a> show that the total national prison population grew by over 2%, with 42 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) incarcerating more people at the end of 2022 than 2021. In 14 states, the prison population grew by 5% or more,1<\/a><\/sup> with just 9 states (mostly in the South) and the BOP accounting for 91% of all prison growth nationwide.2<\/a><\/sup> The number of imprisoned women grew proportionally more than the number of imprisoned men (up 5% compared to 2%). At the end of 2022, 16 states held 90% or more of their pre-pandemic (2019) prison populations.<\/p>\n

Just like the prison population changes we saw during the early and mid-pandemic (2020 and 2021), these increases were driven by changes in admissions<\/a> more than anything else: 11% more people \u2014 about 48,000 more \u2014 were sent to prison in 2022 than in 2021. One narrow silver lining from this update: The number of people released from prisons increased for the first time since 2015; unfortunately, this was only a tiny increase of 1% compared to 2021. (As we recently reported, parole boards have been approving fewer people<\/a> on discretionary parole in recent years, and compassionate release systems are woefully under-utilized<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Local jails<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Local jail populations grew at an even faster pace<\/a> than prisons in 2022; jails held 4% more people at the end of June 2022 than at the end of June 2021.3<\/a><\/sup> The women\u2019s jail incarceration rate grew 9% compared to 3% for men, and Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander4<\/a><\/sup> rates all rose proportionally more than white and Hispanic jail rates.<\/p>\n

As with prisons, jail growth was driven by a nearly 7% increase in admissions over last year. The pretrial population was almost back to its full pre-pandemic size (at 97%); more than 70% of people in jail had not been convicted of a crime. Another contributing factor to jail growth: the use of jail detention as a response to probation violations<\/a>, up 5% compared to 2021. During the pandemic, many jurisdictions reduced their use of jails for punishing these typically low-level, noncriminal violations, but it appears that costly practice is \u201cback to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A preliminary look at 2023 and beyond: Prison and jail populations continue to grow<\/h2>\n

In an effort to see whether the growth trend in jail and prison populations has continued since the BJS collected data in 2022, we looked for more recent data. While the data we found are neither complete nor perfectly comparable to those published by the BJS,5<\/a><\/sup> we were able to look at year-to-date 2023 jail data from the Jail Data Initiative<\/a> and at 2023 prison population data published by 42 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).<\/p>\n

What we found was troubling but not surprising:<\/p>\n