--- description: The U.S. prison population grew for the first time in three years to 1,574,700 in 2103, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Justice, throwing cold water on the idea that recent reforms could put a significant dent in the number of people incarcerated. title: U.S. Prison Population Expands For the First Time in 3 Years image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3386e00c0952e661/6986a39a169ab04e7727b320/175284425.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [justice](/tag/justice/) ## justice Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # U.S. Prison Population Expands For the First Time in 3 Years  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 16, 2014 6:43 PM CUT  FREMONT, CA - AUGUST 01: Jail cells sit empty at the Fremont Police Detention Facility on August 1, 2013 in Fremont, California. The Fremont Police Department has started to offer inmates who are serving short sentences on lesser charges an option to ''pay to stay'' for a one-time fee of $45 and $155 a night to stay in a smaller, quieter facility and avoid going to county jails. The city could stand to make $244,000 annually if 16 inmates spent two nights a week under the program. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) FREMONT, CA - AUGUST 01: Jail cells sit empty at the Fremont Police Detention Facility on August 1, 2013 in Fremont, California. The Fremont Police Department has started to offer inmates who are serving short sentences on lesser charges an option to ''pay to stay'' for a one-time fee of $45 and $155 a night to stay in a smaller, quieter facility and avoid going to county jails. The city could stand to make $244,000 annually if 16 inmates spent two nights a week under the program. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 16, 2014 6:43 PM CUT The U.S. prison population grew for the first time in three years in 2013, according to a report [released](http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf "undefined") Tuesday by the Department of Justice, deflating hopes that a recent batch of minor reforms could put a major dent in the number of people incarcerated. Some 1,574,700 people are currently incarcerated in American prisons. The growth marks a return to a long-term trend that stretches back to the early 1980s, when the prison population began to steadily expand year after year. That expansion continued until 2009, when the prison population peaked at 1,615,487 inmates. Subsequent declines offered signs that minor reforms, including lighter sentences for low-level offenders, might have begun to whittle away at incarceration rates. The number of prisoners for every 100,000 Americans continued to fall, however, to 478 inmates, the lowest ratio in 10 years, showing that while the prison population may be growing once again, it still isn’t growing as quickly as the wider population. The Department of Justice noted that the number of federal prisoners continued to fall in 2013, but those decreases were overwhelmed by a rise in the number of state prisoners. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3387291/us-prison-population/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3387291/us-prison-population/"},"headline":"U.S. Prison Population Expands For the First Time in 3 Years","datePublished":"2014-09-16T18:43:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:12:56.863Z","description":"1,574,700 and counting","url":"https://time.com/3387291/us-prison-population/","keywords":["justice","Crime","Prison"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3386e00c0952e661/6986a39a169ab04e7727b320/175284425.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3386e00c0952e661/6986a39a169ab04e7727b320/175284425.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Fremont Police Detention Facility Offers Pay Upgrade For Jail Stay","caption":"Fremont Police Detention Facility Offers Pay Upgrade For Jail Stay","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3387291/us-prison-population/","name":"U.S. Prison Population Expands For the First Time in 3 Years"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"From Prison to Parole: An Ex-Con's Transition","description":"Chris Carney, an ex-convict, rebuilds a life in the real world after landing a job as a building superintendent","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qcbgUZ6e/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-12-07T16:17:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qcbgUZ6e.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3387291/us-prison-population/","duration":"PT4M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3387291/us-prison-population/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```