INSTITUTE INDEX: What do the numbers say about prisons in the South?

Total number of people in federal and state prisons in the U.S. at the end of 2013: 1.57 million

Decline in federal prison population from 2012 to 2013: 1,900

Number of consecutive years that the federal prison population had been increasing, reversing trend for the first time in 2013: 33

Increase in state prison population, which despite a drop in federal prison population led to an overall increase in the prison population in the U.S. from 2012 to 2013: 6,300

Year since when the state prison population has declined, until it reversed trend in 2013 and increased for the first time: 2009

Out of 13* Southern states, number where the state prison population declined or didn’t change: 11

Click here to see the Brennan Center’s interactive map showing the change in state prison population.

Number of states in the South where the rate of incarceration decreased from 2012 to 2013: 9

Number of states in the South where, even with this decrease, the rate of incarceration in 2013 was higher than the national average of 478 prisoners per 100,000: 7

Louisiana's incarceration rate in 2013, which is by far the highest in the country despite declining from 870 prisoners per 100,000 in 2012: 847 prisoners per 100,000

Mississippi's incarceration rate in 2013 -- the second highest in the country: 692 prisoners per 100,000

Total state spending for corrections in 2012, which made up 7 percent of overall general fund expenditures: $52.4 billion

Percent by which state corrections expenditures (including prisons, probation, and parole) have increased over the past 20 years, making it the fastest-growing item in state budgets after Medicaid spending: 300

Percent increase in prisoners held at private prisons nationally between 1990 and 2009, which increased from 7,000 to 129,000 prisoners: 1,600

Total state dollars spent on prisoners in Louisiana that go to privately run for-profit prisons, reflecting one third of Louisiana’s overall prison spending: $182 million

Number of states in the South that have passed policies between 2009 and 2013 to ease drug laws, such as mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders, which have contributed to the massive increase in incarceration: 11

Projected decline of prison inmates in U.S. federal prisons over the next two years, as a result of reforms particularly around reducing sentences for nonviolent offenders: 12,000

(Click on figure to go to source.)

* The Institute for Southern Studies defines the South as including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.