Bureau of Justice Statistics, Veterans Older, Better Educated Than Other State and Federal Prisoners, May 20, 2007: “There were an estimated 140,000 veterans held in state and federal prisons in 2004, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced [on April 29, 2007.] State prisons held 127,500 of these veterans, and federal prisons held 12,500. Almost all veterans in prison were male (99 percent). Among adult males in the U.S. population in 2004, veterans were half as likely as non-veterans to be in prison (630 prisoners per 100,000 veterans, compared to 1,390 prisoners per 100,000 non-veteran U.S. residents). The difference is largely explained by age. Two-thirds of male veterans in the U.S. population were at least 55 years old, compared to 17 percent of non-veteran men. The incarceration rate of these older male veterans (182 per 100,000) was far lower than for those under age 55 (1,483 per 100,000).”