File talk:US incarceration timeline-clean.svg

Jail numbers

In the sources section it lists these sources for jail numbers:

• Correctional Population Trends Chart, 1980-2009. BJS. Data table is no longer on the BJS site at that URL. The last version of it archived at the Internet Archive was archived on January 20, 2013.
• Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850-1984 (NCJ 102529). PDF. BJS.

Jail. 1880 18,686. 1890 33,093. 1940 99,249. 1950 86,492. 1960 119,671. 1970 129,189. 1978 158,394. 1980 163,994. 1983 223,551.

I went ahead and corrected the 1970 jail number in the data table. It had 160,863. That does not fit in with the trend over time. So I figure it was a mistake. I substituted the 1970 number (129,189) from the above source. I also added the 1978 number (158,394) since that spot was blank in the data table. I then corrected the totals on those lines. --Timeshifter (talk) 03:48, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

The last edit seems to have put in a wrong total? My Windows calculator, and manual calculation, comes up with a total of 528087 for 1978:

 75,297 - Juvenile detention (1977 number). 
158,394 - Jail. 
294,396 - Prisons.
_______
528,087 - Total. 

I haven't checked any of the other totals. Are you using a 1978 total from another source? That would make sense as it may be based on a 1978 juvenile detention number even if we don't see what BJS used for that number. I want to document everything as thoroughly as possible. --Timeshifter (talk) 06:27, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Where exact numbers are not known for one of the columns, they are linearly estimated, and the total is rounded to 100. The previous year was used only if there is no subsequent data, as there is no way to assume that the previous trend will continue. Delphi234 (talk) 22:04, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

1978:
 74,705 - Juvenile detention (average of 1977 and 1979 numbers). 
158,394 - Jail. 
294,396 - Prisons.
_______
527,495 - Total (rounded to 527,500)

More sources

• Tracking State Prison Growth in 50 States. See the list of sources at the end in the methodology section. Prison Policy Initiative. --Timeshifter (talk) 15:00, 13 September 2015 (UTC)