The Facts On Incarceration

In Georgia

Georgia leads the country in the rate at which it imprisons its citizens: approximately 1 in 13 Georgians are under some form of state supervision, versus 1 in 31 nationally. Within three years two-thirds of ex-offenders have been rearrested. In some of our poorest communities as many as one out of five adult men are behind bars on any given day, and children who grow up in such neighborhoods are more likely to end up in prison. The costs of our failing criminal justice system to communities, to public safety, and to the taxpayer are unsustainable.

  • 2.6 million people have a criminal record on file with the Georgia Crime Information Center (Georgia Bureau of Investigation, 2013).10
  • One in 13 adults are under some form of correctional supervision in the State of Georgia (Pew Center on the States, 2009).11
  • Between 1982 and 2002, the Georgia prison population more than tripled from 13,884 to 46,534 people (Urban Institute, 2004).12
  • In 2010, the state’s prison population was the fifth largest in the nation at 53,704 offenders (Vera Institute of Justice),13 while having the ninth largest population of any state (U.S. Census Bureau).14
  • Over 163,000 offenders were on probation in 2012 (Georgia Department of Corrections).15
  • More than 27,000 offenders were on parole in 2013 (State Board of Pardons and Paroles).16
  • The average probation sentence for an offender in Georgia is almost 7 years – twice the length of the national average (Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform, 2011).17
  • In fiscal year 2010, the state spent over $1 billion in prison expenditures (Vera Institute of Justice).18
  • For every dollar spent on higher education in 2007, Georgia spent 50 cents on corrections (Pew Center on the States).19
  • In 2012, 61.7% of Georgian prisoners were Black, 33.6% were White, and 4.3% were Hispanic (Department of Corrections),20 while the general population in the state that year was 31.2% Black, 62.8% White, and 9.2% Hispanic (United States Census Bureau).21
  • Georgia released more than 21,000 prisoners in 2013 (Georgia Department of Corrections).22
  • Twenty-one percent of max-outs are released with no supervision at all (Pew Center on the States, 2011).23
  • The recidivism rate in Georgia has remained around 30 percent over the past decade (Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform, 2014).24
  • Georgia has 31 state prisons, 23 county prisons, 4 private prisons, 15 transitional centers, and 4 Residential Substance Abuse and Integrated Treatment facilities (Georgia Department of Corrections).25

Nationally

  •  Over 2.3 million (1 in 100) adults were behind bars in the United States in 2008 (Pew Center on the States).1
  • One in every 34 U.S. Adults was under some form of correctional control at yearend 2011 (Bureau of Justice Statistics).2
  • One in 12 working age African American men were in prison or jail in 2010, as compared with 1 in 36 Hispanic men and 1 in 87 white men (Pew Charitable Trusts).3
  • One in nine African American men between the ages of 20-34 were behind bars in 2008 (Pew Center on the States).4
  • 2.7 million children have an incarcerated parent – 1 in every 28 children. This amounts to 3.6% of the U.S. population under 18 years old (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010).5
  • At least 95% of those who enter state prisons return to society at some point (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002).6
  • Nearly 700,000 offenders were released from state and federal prisons in 2011 (Bureau of Justice Statistics).7
  • Two out of every three offenders released from prison are rearrested within three years (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002).8
  • More than 4 in 10 offenders return to prison within three years of their release (Pew Center on the States, 2011).9

For more information on the source of the above data click here.

With much appreciation to The Georgia Center for Opportunity for access to their research on reentry and incarceration.

“We believe that no life is beyond the reach of God’s power, and we envision a future in which countless prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families, are redeemed, restored, and reconciled through the love and truth of Jesus Christ.” – Prison Fellowship