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Bureau of Justice Statistics releases “Juveniles Incarcerated in U.S. Adult Jails and Prisons, 2002–2021”

By Douglas Berman

The Bureau of Justice Statistics today released a short “Just the Stats” document reporting data on juveniles held in adult correctional facilities over the last two decades.  This report, titled “Juveniles Incarcerated in U.S. Adult Jails and Prisons, 2002–2021,” starts this way:

Juveniles (persons age 17 or younger) arrested or convicted for a criminal offense may be housed in juvenile residential facilities or in adult jails and prisons, depending on state statute, judicial discretion, and federal law. This report details trends for juveniles who are held in adult facilities.

Key Findings

  • The number of juveniles incarcerated in all U.S. adult prisons or jails declined from a peak of 10,420 in 2008 to a low of 2,250 in 2021 (figure 1).
  • In 2021, local jails had custody of 1,960 juveniles while state and federal adult prisons held 290.
  • The percent of the total jail population who were juveniles declined from 0.9% in 2002 to 0.3% in 2021 (figure 2).
  • The percent of the total prison population who were juveniles declined from 0.2% in 2002 to 0.02% in 2021.
  • In 2021, 87% of juveniles in adult correctional facilities were held in local jails and 13% were held in prisons, compared to 66% in local jails and 34% in prisons in 2002, the earliest year for which comparable data are available for both populations (table 1).