List of U.S. states by incarceration rate

This is a list of U.S. states by incarceration rate according to the United States Department of Justice figures from 2008 and the data list represents imprisonment rates of sentenced prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities. It does not include prisoners in county jails.[1]

Incarceration rate by state

A map of US states, according to number of incarcerated individuals per population of 100,000 in 2008.[1]
Rank Jurisdiction Prisoners per
100,000 population
— United States 447 (state) plus 61 (federal)[2]
1 Louisiana 867
2 Mississippi 686
3 Oklahoma 654
4 Alabama 648
5 Texas 648
6 Arizona 572
7 Florida 556
8 Arkansas 552
9 Missouri 508
10 South Carolina 495
11 Georgia 479
12 Idaho 474
13 Nevada 472
14 Virginia 468
15 Kentucky 458
16 Ohio 448
17 Michigan 445
18 Colorado 445
19 Delaware 443
20 California 439
21 Indiana 434
22 Tennessee 432
23 South Dakota 416
24 Pennsylvania 403
25 Maryland 387
26 Wyoming 385
27 Montana 378
28 Connecticut 376
29 Illinois 373
30 North Carolina 373
31 Wisconsin 366
32 West Virginia 363
33 Oregon 361
34 Alaska 340
35 New Mexico 323
36 Kansas 317
37 Iowa 309
38 Hawaii 302
39 New York 288
40 New Jersey 286
41 Washington 269
42 Vermont 265
43 Nebraska 247
44 Utah 238
45 North Dakota 226
46 New Hampshire 209
47 Massachusetts 200
48 Rhode Island 197
49 Minnesota 185
50 Maine 148

Comparison with other countries

The stats source is the World Prison Population List. 8th edition. Prisoners per 100,000 population.[3][4]

The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world at 754 per 100,000 (as of 2009).[5] A report released 28 February 2008, indicates that more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison.[6] The United States has less than 5% of the world's population[7] and 23% of the world's prison population.[3] In addition to overall incarceration rates, the United States is also leading in rates of female incarceration. In the United States, women make up more than one tenth of the whole prison population.[8] In most countries, the proportion of female inmates to the larger population is closer to one in twenty. Australia is the exception where the rate of female imprisonment increased from 9.2 percent in 1991 to 15.3 percent in 1999.[9]

Comparing other English-speaking developed countries, the incarceration rate of Canada is 117 per 100,000 (as of 2008), England and Wales is 154 per 100,000 (as of 2011), and Australia is 133 per 100,000 (as of 2010). Comparing other developed countries, the rate of Spain is 159 per 100,000 (as of 2011), Greece is 102 per 100,000 (as of 2009),and Japan is 59 per 100,000 (as of 2009). Comparing other countries with similar percentages of immigrants, Germany has a rate of 85 per 100,000 (as of 2010), Italy has a rate of 113 per 100,000 (as of 2010), and Saudi Arabia has a rate of 178 per 100,000 (as of 2009).[5]

The incarceration rate of the People's Republic of China varies depending on sources and measures. According to the ICPS, the rate for only sentenced prisoners is 120 per 100,000 (as of 2009) and the rate for prisoners including those in administrative detention and pre-trial detainees is 186 per 100,000 (as of 2009).[5] Su Jiang assessed the incarceration rate for all forms of imprisonment in China at 218 prisoners per 100,000 population.[10] Harry Wu, a U.S.-based human rights activist and ex-Chinese labor camp prisoner, estimates that "in the last 60 years, more than 40–50 million people" were in Chinese labor camps.[11]

In addition, the United States has striking statistics when observing the racial dimension of mass incarceration. According to Michelle Alexander, the United States "imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid."[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 United States Bureau of Justice Statistics (December 2009). "Prisoners in 2008". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  2. ↑ United States Bureau of Justice Statistics Prison Inmates At Midyear 2009. http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2200.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 World Prison Population List. 8th edition. By Roy Walmsley. Published in 2009. International Centre for Prison Studies. School of Law, King's College London.
  4. ↑ Human Development Report 2007/2008 (HDR 2007/2008). For prison population per 100,000 people see Table 27 on page 322 of the full report. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), using data from the World Prison Population List, 7th edition. HDR 2009 does not contain a prison population table.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 International Centre for Prison Studies (18 Mar 2010). "Prison Brief - Highest to Lowest Rates". World Prison Brief. London: King's College London School of Law. Archived from the original on 25 March 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  6. ↑ "One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008". The Pew Center on the States. 28 February 2008.
  7. ↑ "US & World Population Clock". U.S. Census Bureau.
  8. ↑ Carlen, Pat (2004). Analysing Women's Imprisonment. Portland: Willan Publishing. p. 43.
  9. ↑ Carlen, Pat (2004). Analysing Women's Imprisonment. Portland: Willan Publishing. p. 42.
  10. ↑ Jiang, Su. "Measuring Prison Population in China: A Preliminary Observation" Paper presented at the annual meeting of The Law and Society Association, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 27 May 2008
  11. ↑ Wu, Harry (1 March 2010). One on One (audio). Interview with Chris Johnstone. Radio Prague. Český rozhlas 7. Prague, Czech Republic. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  12. ↑ Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press. p. 7.

External links

Rate Per 100,000 and Rank by State of Crime and Imprisionment by US States 1978 - 2012 Crime,Punishment and Ratio of Crime to Punishment Per 100,000 and Rank by Year and between States