Trends
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Incarceration Trends
Data tool on jail and prison populations in every U.S. county
In 2014, the nationwide jail incarceration rate of 326 per 100,000 county residents exceeded the highest county rates registered in the 1970s, which rarely exceeded 300 per 100,000.
The Price of Prisons
What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers
State corrections budgets have nearly quadrupled in the past two decades—yet the true taxpayer cost of prison reaches far beyond these numbers. State corrections budgets often fail to reflect certain costs— such as employee benefits, capital costs, in-prison education services, or hospital care for inmates—covered by other government agencies. In p ...
Justice in Review
New Trends in State Sentencing and Corrections 2014-2015
In 2014 and 2015, 46 states enacted at least 201 bills, executive orders, and ballot initiatives to reform at least one aspect of their sentencing and corrections systems. In conducting this review of state criminal justice reforms, Vera found that most of the policy changes focused on three areas: creating or expanding opportunities to divert peop ...
Related Work
The Arrest-Jail Admission Gap
Jail admission rates surpass arrest rates in small and rural counties
But why does this jail-arrest gap exist? First, it is important to acknowledge that differences in counties’ data collection, data sources, and documentation could have contributed to the gap. Federal statistics have some data gaps—not all arrests are reported in FBI statistics, and some jail admissions are missing in states that have city level pr ...
Blog Post
Abdul Rad
Wenshu (Monica) Yang
Vera’s Incarceration Trends State Fact Sheets
An Important New Resource
We present historical trends for the longest period possible with the available data. Analysis of incarceration trends, particularly in the media, often use data from a recent period, such as the recent year-over-year change—or the change since a recently enacted reform. Although there is obvious value in examining recent changes, it is also import ...
Blog Post
Christian Henrichson
People in Prison in 2018
Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) researchers collected year-end 2017 and 2018 prison population data directly from state departments of corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on the number of people in state and federal prisons on December 31, 2018, in order to provide timely information on how prison incarceration is changing in the U ...
Every Three Seconds
Unlocking Police Data on Arrests
The launch of Arrest Trends marks Vera’s most recent effort to reduce the criminal justice system’s footprint—by unlocking key policing data and, in doing so, elevating the narrative of overreliance on arrests and the need for viable alternatives. In this report, readers will find information about the need for greater access to policing data, an o ...
Arrest Trends
Data Tool Demonstration Video
The Vera Institute of Justice has created an interactive data tool for unlocking decades of police data on arrests at the national and local levels. In this video, Vera's Policing Program Director, Rebecca Neusteter, introduces the Arrest Trends data tool and its basic features.
Arrest Trends
Interactive data tool on policing trends at the national and local levels
Arrest Trends: Data Sources and Methodology
This report provides detailed information on why and how the Arrest Trends tool was developed, including data sources and methodology, available year ranges and geographic levels, differences between reported and estimated data, and offense definitions. Read the report to learn more, and explore the interactive Arrest Trends tool at http://arresttr ...
People in Prison in 2017
Assessing and targeting criminal justice reforms requires an up-to-date view of the number of people in state and federal prisons. The Bureau of Justice Statistics collects this data, but their reports lag prison populations by a year or more. In order to get an earlier glimpse at these numbers, Vera researchers collected information directly from ...
An Unjust Burden
The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System
The evidence for racial disparities in the criminal justice system is well documented. The disproportionate racial impact of certain laws and policies, as well as biased decision making by justice system actors, leads to higher rates of arrest and incarceration in low-income communities of color. However, there is no evidence that these widely disp ...
Divided Justice
Trends in Black and White Jail Incarceration 1990-2013
Recent data analyses on jail incarceration—taken from Vera’s Incarceration Trends tool—reveal that although significant racial disparities still exist between black and white jail incarceration rates, incarceration rates for black people are declining, while rates for white people are rising. This report dives into the data on black and white incar ...
Large Cities Drive Nationwide Jail Population Decline; Jails in Most Rural Counties Still Growing
The source of this data, the Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ), does not cover every jail in the United States. Its main purpose is to estimate the national jail population. The survey covers all large jails, but only a sample of smaller jails. For example, though rural counties have the highest incarceration rates, the ASJ collects data in only 14 perc ...
Blog Post
Olive Lu
The Price of Prisons
Examining State Spending Trends, 2010 - 2015
From the early 1970s into the new millennium, the U.S. prison population experienced unprecedented growth, which had a direct influence on state budgets. In recent years, however, lawmakers in nearly every state and from across the political spectrum have enacted new laws to reduce prison populations and spending. This report, which builds upon the ...