Research Guides: Criminology and Criminal Justice: Statistics on Incarceration

Incarceration by County

Marshall Project - Incarceration by County
Marshall Project data indicates the number of adults in each US county who were living in correctional facilities (state prisons, military jails, halfway houses, and immigration detention centers) at the time of the Decennial Census in 2000, 2010, and 2020.

U.S. Sentencing Commission
Data on federal sentencing practices
Detailed Data Tool (from the Sentencing Project)
State Sentencing Commissions
A sentencing commission may articulate sentencing guidelines and collect data on sentencing. Not all states have a sentencing commission

ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
Good source for data on Federal and State prisons

Bureau of Justice Statistics
Portal for wide variety of statistics on prisons, inmates, sentencing and crime
Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear
Presents data on numbers of prisons, jails and inmates and analyzes patterns of growth from 2000 through 2008. These statistical tables include data on rated capacity of jails and prisons, percent of capacity occupied, and capacity added. Data is broken down by state
The Stanford Debtors' Prison Project
Dataset of instances where people are jailed for unpaid court debt
Statistical Abstract of the United States: Law Enforcement, Courts and Prisons
National-level statistics compiled by the US Census Bureau

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - Statistics and Data
Data on crimes, prison populations and criminal justice personnel for UN member nations.
World Prison Population List
The World Prison Population List gives details of the number of prisoners held in 218 independent countries and dependent territories. It shows the differences in the level of imprisonment across the world and makes possible an estimate of the world prison population total. The information is the latest available in 2015.