Number of People In Jails In The US

"Local jails held 87,200 more persons at midyear 2021 (636,300) than at midyear 2020 (549,100), after an unprecedented decrease of 185,300 the year before due to the COVID-19 pandemic (figure 1; table 1). As a result of these changes, the jail population at midyear 2021 was 13% smaller than before the pandemic’s onset.

"At midyear 2021, 29% of jail inmates (185,000) were convicted, either serving a sentence or awaiting sentencing on a conviction, while 71% of inmates (451,400) were unconvicted, awaiting court action on a current charge or held in jail for other reasons (table 5). The percentage of the jail population that was unconvicted increased from 61% to 71% over the last 10 years. This was due to a decrease of 104,600 convicted inmates during this period. The number of unconvicted persons increased by 34,700 from 2011 to 2019, which was offset by a decrease of 29,300 from 2019 to 2021."