Male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners)

Sentenced male prisoners (sentence of more than 1 year) under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities on December 31, per 100,000 male residents. Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics, with Census Bureau resident population estimates for January 1 of the following year.

Counts only prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year, so it differs from the prison population rate used for other countries (prison_population_rate), which counts everyone held in prison, pre-trial detainees included. Prisoners are counted by the jurisdiction with legal authority over them, wherever they are held, on December 31. The national figure adds the federal system to the states. Local jails are not included, except in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont, which run one combined prison and jail system. Felons sentenced in the District of Columbia have been the responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Prisons since 2001, so the District has values only up to 2000.

Key facts

Figures last updated on 2026-10-12.

Rankings

US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2023

Top 15. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Mississippi: 1,243 per 100,000 peopleMississippi1,243Louisiana: 1,193 per 100,000 peopleLouisiana1,193Arkansas: 1,107 per 100,000 peopleArkansas1,107Oklahoma: 988 per 100,000 peopleOklahoma988Texas: 881 per 100,000 peopleTexas881Georgia: 855 per 100,000 peopleGeorgia855Idaho: 823 per 100,000 peopleIdaho823Arizona: 819 per 100,000 peopleArizona819Kentucky: 755 per 100,000 peopleKentucky755Alabama: 754 per 100,000 peopleAlabama754Montana: 735 per 100,000 peopleMontana735Ohio: 733 per 100,000 peopleOhio733Florida: 726 per 100,000 peopleFlorida726Missouri: 711 per 100,000 peopleMissouri711South Dakota: 675 per 100,000 peopleSouth Dakota675
per 100,000 people. Source: BJS, National Prisoner Statistics: imprisonment rate of sentenced male prisoners per 100,000 male U.S. residents (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking of states

Places with data

Published for countries, regions and states.

Countries

Regions and states

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Which places have the highest male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners)? Use official data and cite it.
rank_places {"indicator":"imprisonment_rate_male","level":"region","within":"United States"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=imprisonment_rate_male&level=region&within=United%20States

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.