(Co-authored with Chase Montagnet & Jasmine Heiss for the Vera Institute.)

It has been more than a year since the first calls to release people from jails, prisons, and detention centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of March 2021, there were nearly 1.8 million people still incarcerated in the United States, down only 2 percent since June 2020—there was a 9 percent decrease in the prison population, but that was offset by a 13 percent increase in the jail population. In the face of continued demands for change, most politicians and policymakers failed or refused to do more. Instead they have tolerated widespread COVID-19 outbreaks in jails and prisons across the United States.

New data collected by Vera and detailed in this report reveals that, after the unprecedented drop in the total incarcerated population in the United States that occurred in the first half of 2020, the second half of 2020 looked different. Some places sustained their reduced incarcerated populations, and some even pushed for further reductions. Other states, however, began incarcerating more people as states reopened and returned to previous practices.

In early 2021, incarceration in the United States looks like a patchwork of big changes in the use of jail and prison, varying from state to state and city to city. Some states are reducing prison populations at the expense of refilling jails, as people sit behind bars waiting for court dates or transfers. Some states made less substantial changes in early 2020 but continued to reduce incarceration throughout the fall and winter— even as other states returned to “normal” in ways that have increased incarceration. Generally, however, states that started 2020 with higher incarceration rates made fewer efforts to reduce incarceration—or maintain their reductions— through spring 2021.

For more information, read the report or coverage in the Marshall Project. If you would like to view most of the source data used in the report download this file.