0.2 0.5 0.9
Black 1.1 3.6 5.6
Hispanic 0.4 1.5 2.2

White 1.2% 2.5% 3.4%
Black 7.0 16.5 18.6
Hispanic 2.2 9.5 10.0

----------------------------------------------------------------------

* About 1 in 3 black males, 1 in 6 Hispanic males, and 1 in 17 white
males are expected to go to prison during their lifetime, if current
incarceration rates remain unchanged.

* For women, the chances of going to prison were 6 times greater in
2001 (1.8%) than in 1974 (0.3%); for men, the chances of going to
prison were over 3 times greater in 2001 (11.3%) than in 1974 (3.6%).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

At yearend 2001 there were 1,319,000 adults confined in State or
Federal prison and an estimated 4,299,000 living former prisoners. A
total of 5,618,000 U.S. adult residents, or about 1 in every 37 U.S.
adults, had ever served time in prison. Estimates of the prevalence of
imprisonment in the U.S. population, presented here for the first time,
are based on a demographic model incorporating rates of mortality and
first incarceration in prison.

Between 1974 and 2001, the prevalence of imprisonment increased by
nearly 3.8 million. This included a 1.1 million increase in the number
of adults in prison (up from 216,000) and a nearly 2.7 million increase
in the number of living former prisoners (up from 1,603,000).

If rates of first incarceration remain unchanged, 6.6% of all persons
born in the United States in 2001 will go to State or Federal prison
during their lifetime, up from 5.2% in 1991, and 1.9% in 1974. Unlike
the prevalence of ever having gone to prison, which estimates the
extent of past experiences, the lifetime likelihood of going to prison
is an estimate of the chances of future incarceration, given unchanged
rates of first incarceration and mortality.

+4.3 million U.S. residents in 2001 were former prisoners+

Of the estimated 5.6 million adults in the United States who had been
incarcerated in State or Federal prison at some time before yearend
2001, nearly 4.3 million were no longer in prison (table 1). Former
prisoners accounted for 77% of all adult residents who had ever been
confined in prison.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

+Table 1. Prevalence of incarceration in a State or Federal prison