States With The Most Prisoners In The United States

Prison. What a terrible place. If you’ve ever been to jail, you know this isn’t somewhere you want to be.

The US locks up more prisoners than any other country. And every year, US taxpayers spend $39 billion on their prison systems — the GDP for the country of Latvia. If the US prison system were a country, it would rank 115th worldwide. Which is just sad. It is troubling that we have to lock so many people up.

Because laws vary by state, some states aggressively lock people up. And some states have way more people who can’t figure out how to stay out of trouble.

Today, we will examine the states with the most people behind bars per capita. We’ll talk about why so many people are locked up and then talk about how the American criminal justice system is trying to figure out a solution.

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 states with the most prisoners

Across the nation, which states have the lowest incarceration rates? Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Vermont have the most people who know how to act like normal humans.

What about countries? The country with the lowest number of people behind bars is San Marino – a teeny little country near Italy with 33,000 people. They have two people locked up.

Of course, per capita – the US crushes it – we’re just ahead of El Salvador and Turkmenistan regarding people locked up per capita. And that’s actually down over time here.

Why?

Two main factors – violent crime numbers are down, which is excellent – and drug laws are now less strict. Which means fewer people serve time here.

Another interesting statistic: 90% of America’s prison population is men.

So, grab your jumpsuit and get ready to pump some iron as we visit the prison capitals of America.

For more reading, check out:

The 10 States With The Most Prisoner Per Capita In The United States

1. Mississippi

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 2.0

Population: 2,967,023
Total Prisoners: 19,802
Male Prisoners: 17,937
Female Prisoners: 1,505
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0067

2. Alaska

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY 2.0

Population: 735,951
Total Prisoners: 4,778
Male Prisoners: 1,430
Female Prisoners: 75
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0065

3. Arkansas

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 4.0

Population: 3,006,309
Total Prisoners: 17,625
Male Prisoners: 16,147
Female Prisoners: 1,397
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0059

4. Louisiana

Source: Public domain

Population: 4,657,305
Total Prisoners: 27,296
Male Prisoners: 25,860
Female Prisoners: 1,436
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0059

5. Oklahoma

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 2.5

Population: 3,948,136
Total Prisoners: 22,941
Male Prisoners: 20,552
Female Prisoners: 2,193
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0058

6. Alabama

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 4.0

Population: 4,997,675
Total Prisoners: 26,421
Male Prisoners: 18,545
Female Prisoners: 1,332
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0053

7. Delaware

Source: Public domain

Population: 981,892
Total Prisoners: 4,954
Male Prisoners: 2,705
Female Prisoners: 83
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.005

8. Idaho

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 3.0

Population: 1,811,617
Total Prisoners: 9,110
Male Prisoners: 7,718
Female Prisoners: 1,285
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.005

9. Texas

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY 3.0

Population: 28,862,581
Total Prisoners: 139,631
Male Prisoners: 126,272
Female Prisoners: 10,763
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0048

10. Arizona

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY 2.0

Population: 7,079,203
Total Prisoners: 33,865
Male Prisoners: 30,089
Female Prisoners: 2,940
Prisoners Per Capita: 0.0048

How We Determined The States With The Most Prisoners Per Capita

We went to the Bureau Of Justice Statistics’ most recent prison Census to determine the states with the most prisoners per capita. We looked at the number of people under police jurisdiction in each state and divided them by the most recent Census population. That left us with the prisoners per capita for each state in the United States.

Using Saturday Night Science, we ranked each state on the number of prisoners per capita.

We updated this report for 2023. This report is our 3rd time ranking states by prisoners per capita.

Locking Up The States With The Most Prisons Per Capita

Okay so that’s it – the prison capitals of America. The places with the harshest laws, and where people just can’t seem to figure out how to stay out of trouble.

For more reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The States With The Most Prisons In The US

Rank	State	Population	Prisoners	Prisoners per Capita
1	Mississippi	2,967,023	19,802	0.0067
2	Alaska	735,951	4,778	0.0065
3	Arkansas	3,006,309	17,625	0.0059
4	Louisiana	4,657,305	27,296	0.0059
5	Oklahoma	3,948,136	22,941	0.0058
6	Alabama	4,997,675	26,421	0.0053
7	Delaware	981,892	4,954	0.005
8	Idaho	1,811,617	9,110	0.005
9	Texas	28,862,581	139,631	0.0048
10	Arizona	7,079,203	33,865	0.0048
11	Georgia	10,625,615	48,439	0.0046
12	Kentucky	4,494,141	19,744	0.0044
13	Montana	1,077,978	4,691	0.0044
14	Florida	21,339,762	84,678	0.004
15	South Dakota	881,785	3,444	0.0039
16	Missouri	6,141,534	23,911	0.0039
17	Ohio	11,769,923	45,313	0.0038
18	Indiana	6,751,340	25,286	0.0037
19	Wyoming	576,641	2,154	0.0037
20	Wisconsin	5,871,661	20,873	0.0036
21	Tennessee	6,859,497	23,735	0.0035
22	Nevada	3,059,238	10,304	0.0034
23	West Virginia	1,801,049	5,873	0.0033
24	Michigan	10,062,512	32,374	0.0032
25	South Carolina	5,078,903	16,318	0.0032
26	Virginia	8,582,479	27,162	0.0032
27	Colorado	5,723,176	17,168	0.003
28	Oregon	4,207,177	12,518	0.003
29	Kansas	2,932,099	8,709	0.003
30	Pennsylvania	12,970,650	37,910	0.0029
31	Connecticut	3,605,330	10,506	0.0029
32	Nebraska	1,951,480	5,649	0.0029
33	North Carolina	10,367,022	29,627	0.0029
34	Hawaii	1,453,498	4,149	0.0029
35	Iowa	3,179,090	8,473	0.0027
36	Maryland	6,148,545	15,637	0.0025
37	California	39,455,353	97,608	0.0025
38	New Mexico	2,109,366	4,970	0.0024
39	North Dakota	773,344	1,817	0.0023
40	Illinois	12,821,813	29,634	0.0023
41	Rhode Island	1,091,949	2,393	0.0022
42	Vermont	641,637	1,360	0.0021
43	Utah	3,231,370	6,009	0.0019
44	Washington	7,617,364	13,772	0.0018
45	New York	20,114,745	31,148	0.0015
46	Minnesota	5,670,472	8,636	0.0015
47	New Hampshire	1,372,175	2,086	0.0015
48	New Jersey	9,234,024	12,657	0.0014
49	Maine	1,357,046	1,675	0.0012
50	Massachusetts	6,991,852	6,001	0.0009