Map Shows Which States Have the Most Prisoners

Despite being the “land of the free,” the U.S. remains the world leader when it comes to locking people up, with some 1.9 million people behind bars, according to a 2024 estimate by the Prison Policy Initiative.
Even adjusted for population, the U.S. sits near the top of the list in terms of incarceration rates, with 614 individuals imprisoned for every 100,000 citizens.
According to the think tank’s global data, the U.S. is beaten only by Turkmenistan, Rwanda, Cuba and El Salvador, which reigns supreme with an incarceration rate of 1,086, following a series of radical criminal justice reforms enacted by President Nayib Bukele beginning in 2019.
However, the levels of incarceration vary greatly across the U.S., as seen here on a map created by Newsweek.
Coming in well ahead of the rest of the U.S. states are Texas, California and Florida, with respective prison populations of 219,000, 199,000 and 157,000.
While their position at the top of the list is unsurprising, these three also being the most highly populated states, Texas and Florida also boast some of the highest per capita incarceration rates in the country, with 751 and 795 individuals behind bars for every 100,000 residents, respectively, compared to California’s 494.
According to the Florida Policy Institute, the state’s staggering figure can be attributed to both the number of offenders sent to prison, and the hefty sentences imposed on inmates.
When adjusted for population, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas have the highest rates of incarceration, with Louisiana’s rate of 1,067 per 100,000 people only slightly behind El Salvador’s.
The state has one of the highest crime rates in the country, and some of the strictest sentencing guidelines, with a higher share of its prisoners serving life without the possibility of parole than any other state, according to advocacy group The Sentencing Project.
However, Louisiana’s prison population may not simply be the result of its crime rate and efforts to stem this.
A January 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Justice found that the state “routinely confines people in its custody past the dates when they are legally entitled to be released from custody, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
On the bottom of the list are Maine (3,500), Rhode Island (2,500) and Vermont, with only 1,500 people behind bars and an incarceration rate of 245 per 100,000 people, less than a quarter that of Louisiana.
Newsweek contacted the Prison Policy Initiative for further comment.
While it acknowledged that the sources of America’s “failed experiment with mass incarceration” were too numerous to give a concise explanation, it said that a key factor was “the systematic disinvestment in black and brown communities.”
“This has meant fewer opportunities to for people in these communities to secure a quality education, good job, stable housing, and adequate physical and mental health care,” the PPI said. “This all happened while investments in policing went through the roof. These two factors combined to result in more and more people being locked up.”
It also mentioned the success politicians have had at the ballot box by touting their “tough-on-crime” policies, which leads to harsh sentences and an emphasis on policing rather than efforts to reduce the original causes of crime and recidivism among offenders.
“Addressing problems like homelessness, substance use disorder, or untreated mental illness in a community requires resources, thoughtful solutions, and hard work. Instead of focusing on these problems, politicians have taken the easy way out.”
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