US Prison Population Declining Since Its 2007 Peak

From Bloomberg, "The Prison Population Is Actually Falling in the U.S.: The incarceration rate in the U.S. peaked in 2007 and has been tapering off ever since." by Deirdre Fretz:

The number of sentenced prisoners in the U.S. has been falling (ever so slightly) in recent years.

Source: Bloomberg

Nationwide, incarceration rates of sentenced prisoners peaked in 2007 and have been tapering off in the years since, Bureau of Justice Statistics data show. Between 2009 and 2014, state prison populations fell 8 percent and federal prison rates declined 2 percent. Some states in particular have seen significant declines. For example, the population of state and federal prisons within California fell from 342 per 100,000 state residents in 2007 to 257 in 2014. The incarceration rate in New Jersey fell from 311 to 241 over the same period.