How many states use private prisons?

As of 2025, there are zero federal inmates in private institutions. However, from Montana to Arizona, private facilities house thousands of inmates for states, while 22 states don’t use them at all. Let’s see where private prisons fit into the nation’s correctional system.

As of 2022, 28 states used private prisons. Montana relied the most on for-profit prisons, with nearly half (49.4%) of its prison population in private facilities. Other states with high rates include New Mexico (30.6%), Arizona and Tennessee (both 28.8%), and Hawaii (23.3%). 
Twenty-two states did not use private prison facilities. Some states have laws banning private prisons, while others simply don’t have contracts with them. 
Most prisoners who are not in private prisons are in state-run jails. In 2022, an average of 87.2% of prisoners were in state-run facilities. Seven states used state-run jails only: California, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Rhode Island. 
Louisiana was the lone state to place more inmates in local jails (52.7%) than in state-run ones (47.3%).

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How childhood vaccination rates are changing

Vaccines help control infectious diseases, from measles to polio. The CDC recommends that all children receive a set of vaccines known as the “combined 7-series” by the time they turn 2 years old. But children born during the COVID-19 pandemic are getting fewer vaccines than those born in the 2010s.

Meanwhile, measles cases are in the news; New Mexico and Texas are grappling with an outbreak that’s killed one child and one adult. Here’s the data on how vaccination rates vary by state.

Of children born in 2020 and 2021, 72.8% got the full 7-series vaccination set by the time they were 35 months old, compared to 74.4% of children born in 2013 and 2014. (See the full list of 7-series vaccines at the link above.)
The MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine is part of the combined 7-series. The MMR vaccination rate fell from a 2018 peak of 94.7% to 93.1% in 2021. The 219 measles cases reported from January 1 to August 15, 2024, exceeded the annual number of cases reported from 2020 to 2023.

Some Northeastern states have higher childhood vaccination rates than others. As of 2023, Massachusetts (92.0%), Connecticut (89.7%), and Rhode Island (84.1%) had the highest rates of combined 7-series vaccinations. 
Montana (62.4%), Nebraska (62.8%), and Alaska (64.1%) had the lowest combined 7-series vaccination rates.
More parents are claiming vaccine exemptions. In the 2023–24 school year, 3.3% of kindergarteners had exemptions, up from 3.0% the previous school year. Exemptions can be based on medical, religious, or philosophical reasons.

Data behind the news

If it’s a day that ends in “y,” tariffs are in the news. Here’s how they work. (We’ll have an even closer look at trade by top trading partners coming soon. Stay tuned.)

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested green card holder Mahmoud Khalil as the administration planned to deport him. However, a federal judge blocked his deportation until his attorneys and the federal government appear in court. Learn more about ICE and who gets a green card.

More than 40 people died from tornadoes, wildfires, and dust storms in the Midwest and South over the weekend. Are the number of major natural disasters increasing? Here’s the data, plus facts on where tornados are striking.

The weekly fact quiz is here. Can you pass it?

One last fact

What’s in your cup this St. Patrick’s Day? While Irish beers and spirits might be the traditional way to celebrate, the US, of course, has a rich brewing history of its own. And that’s especially true in Ohio, which was the nation’s top beer producer as of March 2024. Sláinte!