After the last declaration of the President Donald Trump on his desire to reopen the federal prison of Alcatraz – off San Francisco – To host the most dangerous prisoners of the country, the condition of the prison system in the United States has returned to the center of the public debate. A much more controversial and complex theme of the reopening of Alcatraz, which will probably never happen, given that the last prisoners were transferred to other structures on March 21, 1963 and for decades it has been one of the most visited tourist destinations in the Bay of San Francisco. But speaking of concrete facts, let’s examine How the US prison system worksdivided into two levels: federal and state.
A world record
Let’s start from a data: the United States have the higher incarceration rate globally (at least as regards democratic countries), with 580 people held every 100,000 residents. In total, it is over 2 million people which at the moment are deprived of their freedom for crimes of various kinds. According to the relationship Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2025 of the US Think Tank Prison Policy Initiativethe annual cost to maintain this system is around 182 billion dollarseven if the researchers themselves speculate that it could be even higher.
The numbers of the prison system: federal prisons and other types
Entering more in detail, there are in the United States 1566 prisons administered by the individual states, 98 Federal prisons (i.e. those managed directly by the United States government and in which people who have committed federal crimes are held), 3116 Local prisons (local jails), 1277 child detention structures, 133 detention centers for migrants And 80 prisons administered by the Indian communities (Indian country jails). Military prisons, state psychiatric hospitals and detention centers on US territories outside the United States, such as the notorious Guantanamo prison in Cuba, are also added to these.
The distribution of the people held
The prisons managed by the 50 States which form the United States deeper than the half of the total of imprisoned people (1,098,000), while the 203,000 federal structures. They are mainly managed by the Bureau of Prisons (Bop) and the US Marshals Service. The Bop holds 147,000 people condemned, while the US Marshals Service 56.000mainly awaiting judgment or conviction for federal crimes. People under the responsibility of the US Marshals Service are often hosted in local prisons or state prisons thanks to special contracts. In the minors facilities there are around 28,000 people, while in those for irregular migrants managed by the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) there are about 48,000 people, but this number is constantly growing due to the narrow decisive by the Trump Administration. To these are also added Thousands of unaccompanied children detained by the office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in structures that in practice are prisons. To conclude, the authorities of the Indian lands hold 2000 people, the military ones 1000, while structures on the Guantanamo model around the world about 7000.
The “Local Jails” system
Less known, but fundamental for the US prison system are the Local prisonsi local jails who take care of holding people for periods of time that do not exceed the day. On average in these structures are found 665,000 peopleunder the responsibility of the city authorities or counties. The relationshipThe Whole Pie 2025 He defines them as “the entrance door for imprisonment” and the main responsible for the phenomenon of constantly growing mass encrioment in the United States. According to the data collected by the Prison Policy Initiative, most people in local prisons were not sentenced, but is held pending judgment. Out of 665,000 people in local prisons, 457,000 were not sentencedwhile 105,000 are serving penis for minor crimes. Over 80% of those who are detained by order of local authorities are still awaiting trial. The growth of the prison population in the last 25 years would therefore seem to be a direct consequence of the increase in precautionary detention. Many prisoners in local prisons awaiting judgment are in this situation because they cannot afford the payment of the deposit set for their release. THE’average amount of the deposit for serious crimes is in fact 10,000 dollarswhich represents 8 months of income for the type prisonerwhich cannot afford the deposit.
The relative weight of private prisons
Another interesting point on which to clarify is the question of the impact of private individuals on the US prison system. Unfortunately, given in hand, the percentage of people held in structures managed by private individuals in the United States is around 8% of the totaland they are practically all there for minor crimes (such as drugs related to drugs, since they allow governments to save on construction and management costs) or because they are migrants.
According to the NGO Sentencing Project, in 2022 Almost 91,000 prisoners were in private prisons. Unlike the predecessor Joe Biden, Trump is much closer to the interests of the companies that deal with private prisons, but it is unlikely that in the coming years there is a significant increase in prisoners in these structures, given that in addition to being expensive to maintain and manage, the associated costs can become an obstacle for state and federal governments. Not to mention the growing legal and social disputes related to their operation, which could slow down their expansion in the coming years.
