Wrongful Convictions: The Data

Written: Wednesday, August 27th, 2025

In November of 2024,  over 1.9 million individuals were reported as being held in various correctional facilities throughout the United States of America. These individuals either admitted to being guilty or were said to be guilty based on evidence gathered from the crime they were accused of, resulting in their imprisonment. The majority of the time, those individuals are meant to be in those correctional facilities; however, some are not. Research has found that nearly 15% of convictions in the United States are wrong; per state, that percentage goes down to around 0.3%. So when you really think about it, if there are over 1.9 million individuals who are currently incarcerated, that little 15% becomes equivalent to around 250,000. Obviously, there are going to be more individuals claiming to be innocent than ones who actually are, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some who actually are.