Thank you,
—Peter Wagner, Executive Director
Donate
Alabama profile
Alabama has an incarceration rate of 938 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Alabama and why.
43,000 people from Alabama are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Alabama is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 90,000 different people are booked into local jails in Alabama.
Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years
- total numbers rather than rates.
- Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
- Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
Today, Alabama’s incarceration rates stand out internationally
People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
Alabama's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in Alabama
Prisons and jails in Alabama are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
- Jails in Alabama charge up to $3.75 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge 75¢ for a 15-minute call.
- Alabama prisons charge people $4 to see a healthcare provider.
- Alabama prisons charge families up to a 15% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
- If a person in Alabama prisons has more than $15 in their commissary. account they may not qualify for assistance to purchase essentials like hygiene items and postage.
- People in Alabama prisons sometimes earn nothing for their work.
Our other articles about Alabama
- The parole board in Alabama is releasing 70% fewer people and holding 10% fewer hearings since the pandemic started
- Alabama's choice to criminalize "failure to appear" may be hurting public safety
- The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 15% of people in Alabama prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
- Alabama makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
- Bail companies in Alabama have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
- Alabama prisons release about 12,920 people every year
- Alabama hinders jury diversity by excluding people with certain felony records
- Cruel and unusual punishment: When Alabama prisons don't provide air conditioning
- How much do incarcerated people in Alabama earn for their work in prison?
- We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Alabama gets an F
- Alabama is 1 of only 8 states still suspending driver's licenses for drug offenses unrelated to driving
- Who's helping the 41,753 women released from Alabama correctional facilities each year?
Other resources
- Research on Alabama in our Research Library
Data on COVID-19 in Alabama jails and prisons
We gave Alabama a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:
- Alabama is the only state for which we were unable to find evidence of the Department of Correction providing free masks to incarcerated people.
- Alabama released fewer people on parole in 2020 than they had in 2019, and approved a smaller percent of parole applications.
For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:
- How many COVID-19 cases in Alabama communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
