Data / Rankings / Male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners) / US states

US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners)

Mississippi had the highest male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners) of 50 states in 2022, at 1,258 per 100,000 people. Massachusetts had the lowest, at 185 per 100,000 people. The median was 555 per 100,000 people and the figure for the United States was 667 per 100,000 people. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Keep it in a collection in your library.
Highest1,258Mississippi
Lowest185Massachusetts
Median55550 states
United States667History

Map of states, 2022

Alabama: 750 per 100,000 peopleAlaska: 371 per 100,000 peopleArizona: 815 per 100,000 peopleArkansas: 1,070 per 100,000 peopleCalifornia: 481 per 100,000 peopleColorado: 523 per 100,000 peopleConnecticut: 330 per 100,000 peopleDelaware: 545 per 100,000 peopleFlorida: 718 per 100,000 peopleGeorgia: 833 per 100,000 peopleHawaii: 317 per 100,000 peopleIdaho: 786 per 100,000 peopleIllinois: 453 per 100,000 peopleIndiana: 636 per 100,000 peopleIowa: 481 per 100,000 peopleKansas: 535 per 100,000 peopleKentucky: 779 per 100,000 peopleLouisiana: 1,155 per 100,000 peopleMaine: 197 per 100,000 peopleMaryland: 500 per 100,000 peopleMassachusetts: 185 per 100,000 peopleMichigan: 618 per 100,000 peopleMinnesota: 281 per 100,000 peopleMississippi: 1,258 per 100,000 peopleMissouri: 702 per 100,000 peopleMontana: 705 per 100,000 peopleNebraska: 527 per 100,000 peopleNevada: 590 per 100,000 peopleNew Hampshire: 276 per 100,000 peopleNew Jersey: 268 per 100,000 peopleNew Mexico: 421 per 100,000 peopleNew York: 313 per 100,000 peopleNorth Carolina: 509 per 100,000 peopleNorth Dakota: 391 per 100,000 peopleOhio: 717 per 100,000 peopleOklahoma: 1,023 per 100,000 peopleOregon: 550 per 100,000 peoplePennsylvania: 560 per 100,000 peopleRhode Island: 245 per 100,000 peopleSouth Carolina: 578 per 100,000 peopleSouth Dakota: 620 per 100,000 peopleTennessee: 619 per 100,000 peopleTexas: 836 per 100,000 peopleUtah: 323 per 100,000 peopleVermont: 238 per 100,000 peopleVirginia: 589 per 100,000 peopleWashington: 326 per 100,000 peopleWest Virginia: 595 per 100,000 peopleWisconsin: 583 per 100,000 peopleWyoming: 639 per 100,000 people
  • Under 320
  • 320 to 480
  • 480 to 560
  • 560 to 620
  • 620 to 770
  • 770 and over
  • No data
per 100,000 people, 2022. Hatched areas have no value for this period. 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). Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All states, 2022

Mississippi: 1,258 per 100,000 peopleMississippi1,258Louisiana: 1,155 per 100,000 peopleLouisiana1,155Arkansas: 1,070 per 100,000 peopleArkansas1,070Oklahoma: 1,023 per 100,000 peopleOklahoma1,023Texas: 836 per 100,000 peopleTexas836Georgia: 833 per 100,000 peopleGeorgia833Arizona: 815 per 100,000 peopleArizona815Idaho: 786 per 100,000 peopleIdaho786Kentucky: 779 per 100,000 peopleKentucky779Alabama: 750 per 100,000 peopleAlabama750Florida: 718 per 100,000 peopleFlorida718Ohio: 717 per 100,000 peopleOhio717Montana: 705 per 100,000 peopleMontana705Missouri: 702 per 100,000 peopleMissouri702Wyoming: 639 per 100,000 peopleWyoming639Indiana: 636 per 100,000 peopleIndiana636South Dakota: 620 per 100,000 peopleSouth Dakota620Tennessee: 619 per 100,000 peopleTennessee619Michigan: 618 per 100,000 peopleMichigan618West Virginia: 595 per 100,000 peopleWest Virginia595Nevada: 590 per 100,000 peopleNevada590Virginia: 589 per 100,000 peopleVirginia589Wisconsin: 583 per 100,000 peopleWisconsin583South Carolina: 578 per 100,000 peopleSouth Carolina578Pennsylvania: 560 per 100,000 peoplePennsylvania560Oregon: 550 per 100,000 peopleOregon550Delaware: 545 per 100,000 peopleDelaware545Kansas: 535 per 100,000 peopleKansas535Nebraska: 527 per 100,000 peopleNebraska527Colorado: 523 per 100,000 peopleColorado523North Carolina: 509 per 100,000 peopleNorth Carolina509Maryland: 500 per 100,000 peopleMaryland500California: 481 per 100,000 peopleCalifornia481Iowa: 481 per 100,000 peopleIowa481Illinois: 453 per 100,000 peopleIllinois453New Mexico: 421 per 100,000 peopleNew Mexico421North Dakota: 391 per 100,000 peopleNorth Dakota391Alaska: 371 per 100,000 peopleAlaska371Connecticut: 330 per 100,000 peopleConnecticut330Washington: 326 per 100,000 peopleWashington326Utah: 323 per 100,000 peopleUtah323Hawaii: 317 per 100,000 peopleHawaii317New York: 313 per 100,000 peopleNew York313Minnesota: 281 per 100,000 peopleMinnesota281New Hampshire: 276 per 100,000 peopleNew Hampshire276New Jersey: 268 per 100,000 peopleNew Jersey268Rhode Island: 245 per 100,000 peopleRhode Island245Vermont: 238 per 100,000 peopleVermont238Maine: 197 per 100,000 peopleMaine197Massachusetts: 185 per 100,000 peopleMassachusetts185Mississippi: 1,258 per 100,000 peopleMississippi1,258Louisiana: 1,155 per 100,000 peopleLouisiana1,155Arkansas: 1,070 per 100,000 peopleArkansas1,070Oklahoma: 1,023 per 100,000 peopleOklahoma1,023Texas: 836 per 100,000 peopleTexas836Georgia: 833 per 100,000 peopleGeorgia833Arizona: 815 per 100,000 peopleArizona815Idaho: 786 per 100,000 peopleIdaho786Kentucky: 779 per 100,000 peopleKentucky779Alabama: 750 per 100,000 peopleAlabama750Florida: 718 per 100,000 peopleFlorida718Ohio: 717 per 100,000 peopleOhio717Montana: 705 per 100,000 peopleMontana705Missouri: 702 per 100,000 peopleMissouri702Wyoming: 639 per 100,000 peopleWyoming639Indiana: 636 per 100,000 peopleIndiana636South Dakota: 620 per 100,000 peopleSouth Dakota620Tennessee: 619 per 100,000 peopleTennessee619Michigan: 618 per 100,000 peopleMichigan618West Virginia: 595 per 100,000 peopleWest Virginia595Nevada: 590 per 100,000 peopleNevada590Virginia: 589 per 100,000 peopleVirginia589Wisconsin: 583 per 100,000 peopleWisconsin583South Carolina: 578 per 100,000 peopleSouth Carolina578Pennsylvania: 560 per 100,000 peoplePennsylvania560Oregon: 550 per 100,000 peopleOregon550Delaware: 545 per 100,000 peopleDelaware545Kansas: 535 per 100,000 peopleKansas535Nebraska: 527 per 100,000 peopleNebraska527Colorado: 523 per 100,000 peopleColorado523North Carolina: 509 per 100,000 peopleNorth Carolina509Maryland: 500 per 100,000 peopleMaryland500California: 481 per 100,000 peopleCalifornia481Iowa: 481 per 100,000 peopleIowa481Illinois: 453 per 100,000 peopleIllinois453New Mexico: 421 per 100,000 peopleNew Mexico421North Dakota: 391 per 100,000 peopleNorth Dakota391Alaska: 371 per 100,000 peopleAlaska371Connecticut: 330 per 100,000 peopleConnecticut330Washington: 326 per 100,000 peopleWashington326Utah: 323 per 100,000 peopleUtah323Hawaii: 317 per 100,000 peopleHawaii317New York: 313 per 100,000 peopleNew York313Minnesota: 281 per 100,000 peopleMinnesota281New Hampshire: 276 per 100,000 peopleNew Hampshire276New Jersey: 268 per 100,000 peopleNew Jersey268Rhode Island: 245 per 100,000 peopleRhode Island245Vermont: 238 per 100,000 peopleVermont238Maine: 197 per 100,000 peopleMaine197Massachusetts: 185 per 100,000 peopleMassachusetts185
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

RankStates2022
per 100,000 people		Change on 2021
1Mississippi1,258+152 pts
2Louisiana1,155+54 pts
3Arkansas1,070+34 pts
4Oklahoma1,023+17 pts
5Texas836+19 pts
6Georgia833+16 pts
7Arizona815-12 pts
8Idaho786+15 pts
9Kentucky779+42 pts
10Alabama750+12 pts
11Florida718+23 pts
12Ohio717+4 pts
13Montana705+51 pts
14Missouri702+11 pts
15Wyoming639+14 pts
16Indiana636-17 pts
17South Dakota620-7 pts
18Tennessee619+41 pts
19Michigan618+4 pts
20West Virginia595+7 pts
21Nevada5900 pts
22Virginia589-66 pts
23Wisconsin583-7 pts
24South Carolina578+7 pts
25Pennsylvania560+12 pts
26Oregon550-27 pts
27Delaware545-8 pts
28Kansas535+13 pts
29Nebraska527+8 pts
30Colorado523+32 pts
31North Carolina509+3 pts
32Maryland500+15 pts
33California481-17 pts
33Iowa481-6 pts
35Illinois453+11 pts
36New Mexico421-13 pts
37North Dakota391+24 pts
38Alaska371-12 pts
39Connecticut330+29 pts
40Washington326-2 pts
41Utah323+5 pts
42Hawaii317-8 pts
43New York313+11 pts
44Minnesota281+18 pts
45New Hampshire276-8 pts
46New Jersey268+4 pts
47Rhode Island245+12 pts
48Vermont238-17 pts
49Maine197-4 pts
50Massachusetts185-4 pts

Other periods

About this ranking

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.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the states are compared on one definition. 1 states with data in other periods have no value for 2022 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics. 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). https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2026). 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) (US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2022) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables

MLA 9

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), US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2022. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 20 Feb. 2026, https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/male-imprisonment-rate/us-states?period=2022. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2026. 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). US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2022. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/male-imprisonment-rate/us-states?period=2022.

Harvard

Bureau of Justice Statistics (2026) 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), US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2022 [Dataset]. Available at: https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/male-imprisonment-rate/us-states?period=2022 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_us_states_by_male_2022,
  author = {{Bureau of Justice Statistics}},
  title = {{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): US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2022}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/male-imprisonment-rate/us-states?period=2022. Publisher attribution: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics. 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). https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
AU  - Bureau of Justice Statistics
TI  - 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): US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners), 2022
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/20
PB  - Bureau of Justice Statistics
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/male-imprisonment-rate/us-states?period=2022
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/male-imprisonment-rate/us-states?period=2022.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics. 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). https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -
Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

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:

Rank US states by male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners) using official data, and cite the source.
rank_places {"indicator":"imprisonment_rate_male","level":"region","within":"United States","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=imprisonment_rate_male&level=region&within=United%20States&limit=10

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

Questions

Which state has the highest male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners)?

Mississippi, with 1,258 per 100,000 people in 2022, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Which state has the lowest male imprisonment rate (sentenced prisoners)?

Massachusetts, with 185 per 100,000 people in 2022.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 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. 1 states have no value for 2022 and are not ranked.

US states: more rankings