Line chart of the number of persons in prison, in jail, on probation, and on parole from 1980 to 2009 (four lines, one for each status.) Throughout the period, the probation population has been the largest, followed by the prison population, the parole population and the jail population.
For probation, the number of adults began at 1,118,097 in 1980 and rose to 4,203,967 in 2009.
For jail, the number of adults began at 183,988 in 1980 and increased, reaching 760,400 in 2009.
For prison, the number of adults began at 319,598 in 1980 and rose to 1,524,513 in 2009.
For parole, the number of adults began at 220,438 in 1980 and increased to 819,308 in 2009.