According to new data from the Department of Justice, the number of people “under correctional supervision” in the US hit 7.3 million at the end of 2008, an increase of 0.5 percent over the previous year — but that was the slowest increase since 2000. The number of people actually in prison was a bit more than 1.6 million — or one out of every 198 Americans.

The full report has state-level data. Outside of Maine and Minnesota, the Bay State had the lowest imprisonment rate in the US: For every 100,000 residents, 218 were serving prison sentences of more than one year. The highest rate was in Louisiana, where 853 out of every 100,000 people were doing serious time, followed by Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Just one year earlier, the imprisonment rate in Massachusetts was 249 (and seven states were lower than we were). Our one-year drop of 31 percent in the imprisonment rate was tied with Texas for the highest in the nation, just ahead of Texas.