US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction

Texas had the highest prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction of 50 states in 2021, at 133,772. Vermont had the lowest, at 1,287. The median was 14,404 and the figure for the United States was 1.21 million. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Highest133,772Texas

Lowest1,287Vermont

Median14,40450 states

United States1,205,087History

Map of states, 2021

Under 4,000
4,000 to 8,000
8,000 to 14K
14K to 22K
22K to 30K
30K and over
No data

count, 2021. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: BJS, National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables). Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All states, 2021

count. Source: BJS, National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	States	2021 count	Change on 2020
1	Texas	133,772	-1.6%
2	California	101,441	+1%
3	Florida	80,417	-0.8%
4	Georgia	47,010	-0.3%
5	Ohio	45,029	-0%
6	Pennsylvania	37,194	-5.5%
7	Arizona	33,914	-10.3%
8	Michigan	32,186	-4.3%
9	Virginia	30,357	-4.7%
10	New York	30,338	-11.1%
11	North Carolina	28,995	-1.6%
12	Illinois	28,980	-2.5%
13	Louisiana	26,074	-3.3%
14	Alabama	25,032	-1.2%
15	Indiana	24,972	-4.1%
16	Missouri	23,422	+1.6%
17	Oklahoma	22,391	-0.3%
18	Tennessee	21,995	-3%
19	Wisconsin	20,202	-0.5%
20	Kentucky	18,560	0%
21	Mississippi	17,332	-1.4%
22	Arkansas	17,022	+5.8%
23	Colorado	15,865	-2.4%
24	South Carolina	15,759	-2.5%
25	Maryland	15,134	-3.1%
26	Washington	13,674	-13%
27	Oregon	13,198	+3.5%
28	New Jersey	12,506	-2.5%
29	Nevada	10,202	-9.3%
30	Connecticut	9,889	+3.5%
31	Idaho	8,907	+6.6%
32	Iowa	8,562	+3.1%
33	Kansas	8,521	-2.9%
34	Minnesota	8,003	-1.8%
35	Massachusetts	6,148	-9.1%
36	Utah	5,911	+8.5%
37	West Virginia	5,847	-3.3%
38	Nebraska	5,600	+5.5%
39	New Mexico	5,154	-6.3%
40	Delaware	4,810	+2.1%
41	Alaska	4,639	+1.3%
42	Montana	4,313	+9.8%
43	Hawaii	4,102	-1.7%
44	South Dakota	3,353	+3.2%
45	Rhode Island	2,238	+0.5%
46	New Hampshire	2,127	-9.6%
47	Wyoming	2,123	+1.7%
48	North Dakota	1,689	+20.6%
49	Maine	1,577	-8%
50	Vermont	1,287	+0.2%

Other periods

About this ranking

Prisoners of any sentence status under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities on December 31. Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics.

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 2021 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: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (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: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables) (US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables

MLA 9

National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables), US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 20 Feb. 2026, https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2026. National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables). US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021.

Harvard

Bureau of Justice Statistics (2026) National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables), US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{bureau_us_states_by_prisoners_2021,
  author = {{Bureau of Justice Statistics}},
  title = {{National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables): US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021}},
  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/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021. Publisher attribution: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics. National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (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: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables): US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021
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/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Prisoner Statistics. National Prisoner Statistics: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (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.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/prisoners-under-jurisdiction/us-states?period=2021" width="760" height="500" title="US states by prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction, 2021, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

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 prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"prisoners_under_jurisdiction","level":"region","within":"United States","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=prisoners_under_jurisdiction&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 prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction?

Texas, with 133,772 in 2021, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Which state has the lowest prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction?

Vermont, with 1,287 in 2021.

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: prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, total (CSAT quick table and Prisoners in YYYY statistical tables). Retrieved 2026-10-12. 1 states have no value for 2021 and are not ranked.