Going to State or Federal Prison, NCJ 160092,
March 1997.) These generation life tables provide the data needed to
estimate the number of living persons who have ever been incarcerated.

A generation life table traces a birth cohort of 100,000 persons
through their entire lives, subjecting them to the observed
age-specific mortality and incarceration rates which they encountered
in each subsequent calendar year of life. The procedure is known as a
double-decrement life table because there are two forms of exit from
the initial 100,000 birth cohort. The procedure yields estimates of the
number of persons in the birth cohort who are incarcerated for the
first time each year or who die.

At each year of age, the estimated number of living persons ever
incarcerated is equal to the number of persons identified as a prisoner
for the first time that year plus the number of surviving members of
the birth cohort who were prisoners in prior years. The age-specific
prevalence rate for members of the birth cohort is obtained by dividing
the surviving number of persons ever incarcerated by the number of
members of the 100,000 birth cohort who have survived to the current
age (including both those never incarcerated and those ever
incarcerated).

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+Appendix table 1. Calculating the number of persons ever
incarcerated in State or Federal prison, 2001+

Prevalence of ever going to prison, 2001

U.S. resident
population,
Year of Age in 2000[a] Percent[b] Number[c]
birth 2001 (1) (2) (3)

1983-1901 18 or older 210,207,901 2.673 5618000

2001-1988 0-13 56,557,383 0.000 0
1987 14 4,063,179 0.000 0
1986 15 4,071,585 0.000 0
1985 16 4,083,677 0.036 1,000
1984 17 4,117,221 0.174 7,000
1983 18 4,022,021 0.453 18,000
1982 19 4,327,407 0.794 34,000
1981 20 4,264,552 1.146 49,000
1980 21 4,140,721 1.510 63,000
1979 22 3,935,452 1.845 73,000
1978 23