For the seventh straight year, the U.S. incarcerated population dropped, reaching its lowest level since 2002.
According to new data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, during 2015, the state and federal incarcerated populations declined by 2 percent — more than it has any year since tracking annual change began in 1978.
At the end of 2015, there were an estimated 6,741,000 persons supervised by adult correctional systems, which includes persons on probation or parole, as well as those incarcerated in state or federal prison or local jail.
The incarcerated population is now below 6.8 million for the first time since 2002.
Furthermore, at the end of 2015, about 1 in 37 adults (or 2.7 percent of all adults) in the U.S. was under some form of correctional supervision — the lowest rate since 1994.
Almost half — 40 percent — of the decline in the overall prison population is thanks to a substantial decline in the federal prison population.
In October 2015, the Justice Department released roughly 6,000 inmates early — the largest one-time release of federal prisoners. The move, meant to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences, accounted for 17 percent of the overall decline.
Regardless of the drop, the rate of incarceration in the U.S. is still about more than five times higher than most countries in the world.
