Editing Prison–industrial complex (section)

== History ==
Early American jails were largely privately managed, holding both criminals awaiting trial and debtors awaiting repayment, and charging holding fees to local governments and creditors.<ref name=":27">{{Cite web|title=An American resolution: the history of prisons in the United States from 1777 to 1877. - Free Online Library|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/An+American+resolution:+the+history+of+prisons+in+the+United+States...-a054494317|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.thefreelibrary.com|archive-date=November 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113011918/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/An+American+resolution:+the+history+of+prisons+in+the+United+States...-a054494317|url-status=live}}</ref> After the first publicly-run prison was established in 1790 in Pennsylvania, private business involvement in corrections largely diminished to providing contracted services, such as food preparation, medical care, and transportation.<ref name=":27" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Mason|first=Cody|date=January 2012|title=Too Good to be True: Private Prisons in America|journal=The Sentencing Project|pages=2–4}}</ref> The major 19th-century exception to the relative separation between public punishment and private industry was the [[Convict leasing|convict lease system]] in the American South, in which private parties paid public prisons for forced prisoner labor.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dolovich|first=Sharon|date=2005-12-01|title=State Punishment and Private Prisons|url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol55/iss3/1|journal=Duke Law Journal|volume=55|issue=3|pages=437–546|issn=0012-7086|access-date=November 13, 2021|archive-date=November 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113011909/https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol55/iss3/1/|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the mass unemployment of the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], business leaders and unions successfully pressured the federal government to prohibit private corporations from contracting cheap prison labor and undercutting competition. In 1930, the federal government established [[Federal Prison Industries]], a prison labor program to produce goods and services for the public sector.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|date=2011-09-01|title=Rethinking Working-Class Struggle through the Lens of the Carceral State: Toward a Labor History of Inmates and Guards|journal=Labor|volume=8|issue=3|pages=15–45|doi=10.1215/15476715-1275226|issn=1547-6715|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":29">{{Cite book|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1npx3mx|title=Labor and Punishment: Work in and out of Prison|date=2021-05-25|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-97337-4|editor-last=Hatton|editor-first=Erin|edition=1|doi=10.2307/j.ctv1npx3mx.3|jstor=j.ctv1npx3mx|s2cid=243114057|access-date=December 5, 2021|archive-date=November 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124232130/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1npx3mx|url-status=live}}</ref>

Many scholars and activists argue that the contemporary prison-industrial complex has its origins in the [[War on drugs|War on Drugs]], a legislative campaign orchestrated by the U.S. federal government since the early 1970s aimed at [[Criminalization|criminalizing]] and punishing drug trafficking and use.<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal|last=Cummings|first=André Douglas Pond|title="All Eyez on Me": America's War on Drugs and the Prison-Industrial Complex|journal=The Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice|volume=15|pages=447|via=ProQuest}}</ref><ref name=":28">{{Cite journal|last1=Moore|first1=Lisa D.|last2=Elkavich|first2=Amy|date=May 2008|title=Who's Using and Who's Doing Time: Incarceration, the War on Drugs, and Public Health|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=98|issue=5|pages=782–786|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2007.126284|issn=0090-0036|pmc=2374804|pmid=18381984}}</ref><ref name=":37">{{Cite journal|last=Fornili|first=Katherine Smith|date=January 2018|title=Racialized Mass Incarceration and the War on Drugs: A Critical Race Theory Appraisal|url=https://journals.lww.com/00060867-201801000-00010|journal=Journal of Addictions Nursing|language=en|volume=29|issue=1|pages=65–72|doi=10.1097/JAN.0000000000000215|pmid=29505464|s2cid=3754719|issn=1548-7148|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Following tougher anti-drug legislation and harsher sentencing standards under the presidential administrations of [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], incarceration increasingly became the standard punishment for non-violent offenses.<ref name=":28" /><ref name=":30">{{Cite news|title=Bulletin: Prisoners in 1989|work=Bureau of Justice Statistics|url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p89.pdf|access-date=November 27, 2021|archive-date=December 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209022139/https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p89.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> As the overall incarcerated population dramatically increased, new correctional facilities needed to be built, staffed, and maintained, and private-sector prisons began to emerge as cost-effective solutions.<ref name=":2" /> Also during this period private-sector wage labor was reintroduced into the national prison system.<ref name=":29" />

The number of Americans awaiting trial or serving a sentence for a drug conviction in prison or jail increased from about 40,000 in 1980 to about 450,000 in 2004.<ref name=":19">{{Cite journal|last=Mauer|first=Marc|title=Thinking About Prison and its Impact in the Twenty-First Century|url=http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Thinking-About-Prison-and-its-Impact-in-the-Twenty-First-Century.pdf|journal=Walter C. Reckless Memorial Lecture|pages=613|access-date=November 30, 2017|archive-date=January 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117083744/http://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Thinking-About-Prison-and-its-Impact-in-the-Twenty-First-Century.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In May 2021 the [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] listed 46.3 percent of federal inmates as incarcerated because of drug convictions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Inmate Statistics: Offenses|url=https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp|access-date=May 24, 2021|publisher=Federal Bureau of Prisons|archive-date=May 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527030909/https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 1970s ===
[[File:US incarceration timeline.gif|thumb|420x420px|US incarceration timeline]]In 1973, following the lead of President Nixon, New York State passed the [[Rockefeller Drug Laws]], establishing [[Mandatory sentencing|mandatory minimum prison sentences]] for small-scale drug possession. Although not as harsh as Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]] had originally called for, these laws inspired other states to enact similarly strict punishments for drug offenses, including mandatory minimum sentences in almost every instance.<ref name=":18">{{Cite news|last=Schlosser|first=Eric|title=The Prison-Industrial Complex|language=en-US|work=The Atlantic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/|access-date=2017-11-30|archive-date=October 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020032841/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author1=Madison Gray|date=April 2, 2009|title=New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws|url=http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1888864,00.html|access-date=May 24, 2021|publisher=TIME Inc.|archive-date=May 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511202724/https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1888864,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Also in 1973, conservative businesses and tough-on-crime politicians came together to establish the influential lobbying group [[American Legislative Exchange Council]] (ALEC).

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court case ''[[Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union|Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners’ Labor Union]]'' restricted prisoners’ First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly, and prohibited them from organizing labor unions. In 1979, inspired by legislation proposed by ALEC, the U.S. Congress overturned the New Deal–era legislation against for-profit prison labor by establishing the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIE). Intended to allow inmates to contribute to society, offset the cost of their incarceration, reduce idleness, cultivate job skills, and improve the rates of successful transition back into their communities after release,<ref name="National Correction Industries">{{cite web|date=2011-12-16|title=Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP)|url=http://www.nationalcia.org/piecp-2|access-date=13 October 2017|website=National Correctional Industries Association|archive-date=October 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029091926/http://www.nationalcia.org/piecp-2|url-status=live}}</ref> the PIE program created a cheap captive domestic [[Labour economics|labor market]], which set the stage for the adoption and expansion of private-sector labor in public prisons.<ref name="Hidden History" /><ref name=":18" /> The PIE program also allowed prisons themselves to be privatized and operated as for-profit entities.<ref name="Hidden History">{{cite journal|last1=Elk|first1=Mike|date=August 2011|title=The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor/|journal=The Nation|access-date=13 October 2017|ref=1|archive-date=October 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013071138/https://www.thenation.com/article/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":29" />

Meanwhile, incarceration rates began to soar. After a period of relative stability since 1925 (around 0.1 percent of the population), the overall U.S. imprisonment rate grew rapidly and continuously from 1972, increasing annually by 6 to 8 percent through 2000.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.nap.edu/read/18613/chapter/4|title=Read "The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences" at NAP.edu|year=2014|doi=10.17226/18613|isbn=978-0-309-29801-8|s2cid=155470810 |language=en|access-date=November 24, 2021|archive-date=November 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124230144/https://www.nap.edu/read/18613/chapter/4|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 1980s ===
President Ronald Reagan's [[Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986|1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act]] further accelerated mass incarceration. Very shortly many state prisons were experiencing unprecedented overcrowding.<ref name=":30" /> Rockefeller's successor, New York Governor [[Mario Cuomo]], was unable to generate enough support to dismantle the drug laws, and to keep pace with increasing arrests, was forced to expand the prison system using the [[Empire State Development Corporation|Urban Development Corporation]], a public state agency, which could issue state bonds without voter support.<ref name=":18" /> Despite a general economic retrenchment and avowed state government [[austerity]] policies, these events proved that government funds could nevertheless be made available for prison construction.<ref name=":18" /><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Kolbert|first1=Elizabeth|last2=Times|first2=Special To the New York|date=1990-01-17|title=CUOMO PROPOSES AUSTERITY BUDGET WITH MORE TAXES|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/17/nyregion/cuomo-proposes-austerity-budget-with-more-taxes.html|access-date=2021-11-13|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113011916/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/17/nyregion/cuomo-proposes-austerity-budget-with-more-taxes.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Meanwhile, in 1983, the [[CoreCivic|Corrections Corporation of America]] (CCA) was founded by Nashville businessmen who claimed they could build and operate state and federal prisons with the same quality of service provided by government prisons, but at a lower cost.<ref name=":2" /> In 1984, CCA was awarded a contract for a facility in Hamilton County, Tennessee, the first instance of the public sector contracting management of a prison to a private company. By 1987, the company had signed more contracts, with Tennessee, Texas, and Kentucky, establishing the legal precedent for other startups and established corporations to enter into the industry, not only operating prisons but also immigrant detention facilities for the U.S. [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Doty|first1=Roxanne Lynne|last2=Wheatley|first2=Elizabeth Shannon|date=2013-12-01|title=Private Detention and the Immigration Industrial Complex1|url=https://doi.org/10.1111/ips.12032|journal=International Political Sociology|volume=7|issue=4|pages=426–443|doi=10.1111/ips.12032|issn=1749-5679|access-date=November 13, 2021|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519191611/https://academic.oup.com/ips/article-abstract/7/4/426/1807447?redirectedFrom=fulltext|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> As of 2012, the multibillion-dollar corporation, now known as [[CoreCivic]], manages over 65 correctional facilities and boasts an annual revenue exceeding $1.7 billion.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2013-06-17|title=The Dirty Thirty: Nothing to Celebrate About 30 Years of Corrections Corporation of America|language=en|work=Grassroots Leadership|url=https://grassrootsleadership.org/cca-dirty-30|access-date=2017-10-19|archive-date=October 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020033837/https://grassrootsleadership.org/cca-dirty-30|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1988, the now-second-largest for-profit private prison corporation, [[Wackenhut Corrections Corporation]] (WCC) was established as a subsidiary of [[The Wackenhut Corporation]]. The WCC is now known as [[GEO Group]], and as of 2017, their U.S. Corrections and Detention division manages 70 correctional and detention facilities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geogroup.com/Management_and_Operations|title=Management and Operations|website=www.geogroup.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-10-19|archive-date=October 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020085406/https://www.geogroup.com/Management_and_Operations|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1980 and 1989, the total U.S. prison population increased by 115%, from 329,821 to 710,054 people.<ref name=":30" />

=== 1990s ===
In 1992, [[William Barr]], then [[United States Attorney General]], authored a report, ''The Case for More Incarceration'', which argued for an even further increase in the [[United States incarceration rate]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/139583NCJRS.pdf |title=Info |website=www.ncjrs.gov |access-date=February 11, 2019 |archive-date=May 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505054632/https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/139583NCJRS.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1994, President [[Bill Clinton]] signed the [[Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act]], the largest crime bill in U.S. history,<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news|last=John|first=Arit|title=A Timeline of the Rise and Fall of 'Tough on Crime' Drug Sentencing|language=en-US|work=The Atlantic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/a-timeline-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-tough-on-crime-drug-sentencing/360983/|access-date=2017-10-23|archive-date=October 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023173817/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/a-timeline-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-tough-on-crime-drug-sentencing/360983/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36020717|title=Why is Clinton crime bill so controversial?|last=Lussenhop|first=Jessica|date=2016-04-18|work=BBC News|access-date=2017-10-23|language=en-GB|archive-date=October 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009224306/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36020717|url-status=live}}</ref> which directly allotted a $9.7 billion funding increase to prisons and introduced the [[three-strikes law]], assigning unprecedentedly long sentences (25 year to life minimum) to third-time convicts.

As the prison population continued to grow steeply throughout the 1990s, the profit margins of private prison corporations such as CCA and GeoGroup continued to increase.<ref name=":1" /> Throughout the 1990s, the CCA and GeoGroup were both significant donors to the [[American Legislative Exchange Council]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Mason|first=Cody|date=January 2012|title=Too Good to be True: Private Prisons in America|journal=The Sentencing Project|pages=12}}</ref> In 1995, Congress passed another piece of ALEC-influenced legislation, the Prison Industries Act, allowing corporations to pay prison laborers less than the federal minimum wage and divert the difference to constructing facilities for further prison labor.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dole|first=Robert J.|date=1995-09-27|title=S.1279 - 104th Congress (1995-1996): Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-bill/1279|access-date=2021-11-24|website=www.congress.gov|archive-date=November 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124230144/https://www.congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-bill/1279|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Thompson" />

By the end of 1999, the U.S. had a total incarcerated population of 2,026,596.<ref name=":31">{{Cite news|last=Beck|first=Allen J.|title=Bulletin: Prisoners in 1999|work=Bureau of Justice Statistics|url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p99.pdf|access-date=|archive-date=November 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127201334/https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p99.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> This included 71,206 prisoners held in privately operated facilities, accounting for 5.5% of state and 2.8% of federal prisoners.<ref name=":31" /> In 1999, nearly 43% of all sentenced inmates were African-American men, and an estimated 9% of African-American men in their late 20s were in prison.<ref name=":31" />

=== 2000s ===
Through the 2000s, the federal government continued outsourcing prison management to private facilities, while states varied in their approach to private incarceration. Between 1999 and 2010, six states began using private prisons, while nine states ended their private prison contracts. By 2010, the number of privately held state prisoners in the 30 practicing states ranged from a low of 5 in South Dakota to a high of 19,155 in Texas.<ref name=":2" />

Overall U.S. incarceration (prisons and jails) peaked in 2008 at 2,308,400 people, approximately 1% of the adult population.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Kaeble|first1=Danielle|last2=Cowhig|first2=Mary|title=Correctional Populations in the United States, 2016|work=Bureau of Justice Statistics|url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf|access-date=November 27, 2021|archive-date=November 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127191356/https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":29" />

A 2010 investigation by the [[United States Department of Justice]] found that Federal Prison Industries (the New Deal–era public-sector prison labor program, rebranded in 1977 as [[Federal Prison Industries|UNICOR]]) had routinely exposed federal inmates to toxic heavy metals, exported hazardous wastes to developing countries, and attempted to conceal evidence of unsafe working conditions from [[Occupational Safety and Health Administration|OSHA]] inspectors.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite journal|last=Thompson|first=Heather Ann|date=2012-09-01|title=The Prison Industrial Complex|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new_labor_forum/v021/21.3.thompson.html|journal=New Labor Forum|volume=21|issue=3|pages=41–43|doi=10.4179/nlf.213.0000006|access-date=2014-10-29|s2cid=153936071|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519191727/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/485678|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Grossman">{{cite journal|last=Grossman|first=Elizabeth|date=2005-11-21|title=Toxic Recycling|url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/18737057|journal=Nation|volume=281|issue=17|pages=21–24|access-date=2014-11-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Levin|first=Myron|date=2010-10-21|title=Bureau of Prisons Unit Guilty of Pervasive Safety Violations, U.S. Investigation Finds|url=https://www.fairwarning.org/2010/10/bureau-of-prisons-unit-guilty-of-pervasive-safety-violations-u-s-investigation-finds/|access-date=2021-11-24|website=FairWarning|language=en-US|archive-date=November 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124230150/https://www.fairwarning.org/2010/10/bureau-of-prisons-unit-guilty-of-pervasive-safety-violations-u-s-investigation-finds/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 2010s ===
In 2016, President [[Barack Obama]] issued an executive policy to reduce the number of private federal prison contracts, and the [[United States Department of Justice|United States Justice Department]] began developing a plan to phase out its use of private prisons.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news|title=The federal government is again embracing private prisons. Why?|language=en|work=NBC News|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/private-prisons-here-s-why-sessions-memo-matters-n725316|access-date=2017-11-17|archive-date=November 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118222449/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/private-prisons-here-s-why-sessions-memo-matters-n725316|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite news|last=Long|first=Heather|title=Private prison stocks up 100% since Trump's win|work=CNNMoney|url=https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/24/investing/private-prison-stocks-soar-trump/index.html|access-date=2017-11-17|archive-date=August 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822145704/https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/24/investing/private-prison-stocks-soar-trump/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Deputy Attorney General [[Sally Yates]] rationalized this decision: "Private prisons simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department's Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security."<ref name=":7" /><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|title=Redirecting…|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/guild74&div=6&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals|access-date=2017-11-14|website=heinonline.org|archive-date=February 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225094718/https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals%2Fguild74&div=6&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals|url-status=live}}</ref>

Both the [[GEO Group]] and [[CoreCivic]] donated heavily to the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016 and inaugural committee in 2017,<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Tseng|first=Story by Eli Watkins and Sophie Tatum; Graphics by Joyce|title=Private prison industry sees boon under Trump|work=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/private-prison-department-of-justice/index.html|access-date=2017-10-22|archive-date=October 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024171009/http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/private-prison-department-of-justice/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and following his election, their stock prices skyrocketed: CoreCivic by 140% and GEO Group by 98%.<ref name=":7" /> Less than a month into the Trump administration, Attorney General [[Jeff Sessions]] rescinded the Obama directive curtailing the Federal Bureau of Prisons' private prison contracts, stating that the Obama administration had "impaired the Bureau's ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system."<ref>{{Cite news|date=February 21, 2017|title=Rescission of Memorandum on Use of Private Prisons|url=https://www.justice.gov/oip/foia-library/attorney_general_memorandum_advising_the_federal_bureau_of_prisons_that_the_department_will_continue_to_use_private_prisons.pdf/download|access-date=December 14, 2021|archive-date=November 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120054232/https://www.justice.gov/oip/foia-library/attorney_general_memorandum_advising_the_federal_bureau_of_prisons_that_the_department_will_continue_to_use_private_prisons.pdf/download|url-status=live}}</ref>

By the end of 2019, the U.S. incarcerated population had dropped to 2,068,800 people, its lowest level since 2003.<ref name=":32">{{Cite news|last1=Minton|first1=Todd D.|last2=Beatty|first2=Lauren G.|last3=Zeng|first3=Zhen|date=July 2021|title=Correctional Populations in the United States, 2019 – Statistical Tables|work=Bureau of Justice Statistics|url=https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/cpus19st.pdf|access-date=November 27, 2021|archive-date=November 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113094614/https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/cpus19st.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The incarceration rate had dropped to the same rate as 1995 (810 per 100,000 adult U.S. residents),<ref name=":32" /> with 11% of federal and 7.6% of state prisoners incarcerated in for-profit facilities.<ref name=":32" />