The number of incarcerated people in the U.S. decreased to its lowest level since 1995 while still ranking as the highest globally, a review by the Pew Research Center revealed Monday.
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The data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed at the end of 2019, the U.S. incarcerated 810 prisoners for every 100,000 adults, totaling 2.1 million people in prisons and jails. It’s the lowest that figure has been since 1995. Since peaking in 2006 and 2008 around 1,000 people per 100,000 residents, the rate has declined each year steadily.
Despite the new low in incarcerations, the U.S. still locks people up at an exponentially higher rate than any other developed country that discloses the data. Nations like China are not as transparent.
The numbers do not account for juveniles who the country has incarcerated. The American Civil Liberties Union estimates roughly 60,000 children are in U.S. prisons.
President Joe Biden has promised to help curb the incarceration numbers, saying last week the White House was exploring how to offer clemency to nonviolent drug offenders.
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