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Iowa has an incarceration rate of 582 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 almost any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Iowa and why.

18,000 people from Iowa are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Iowa is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 40,000 different people are booked into local jails in Iowa.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Iowa graphs:

• total numbers rather than rates.
• Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
• Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population

Today, Iowa’s incarceration rates stand out internationally

In the U.S., incarceration extends beyond prisons and local jails to include other systems of confinement. The U.S. and state incarceration rates in this graph include people held by these other parts of the justice system, so they may be slightly higher than the commonly reported incarceration rates that only include prisons and jails. Details on the data are available in States of Incarceration: The Global Context. We also have a version of this graph focusing on the incarceration of women.

People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails

See also our detailed graphs about Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks in Iowa prisons and jails.

Iowa's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails

The high cost of being incarcerated in Iowa

Prisons and jails in Iowa are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:

• Jails in Iowa charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $1.65 for a 15-minute call.
• Iowa suspended its $3 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — but should eliminate them entirely.
• Iowa prisons charge families up to a 32% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in Iowa prisons with more than $6 in their commissary account do not qualify for the $3.50 credit to purchase basic hygiene items and supplies for legal mail.
• People in Iowa prisons earn as little as 27¢ an hour for their work.

Our other articles about Iowa

• Some Iowa prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
• Iowa prisons release about 7,114 people every year
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Iowa gets an F
• Who's helping the 26,863 women released from Iowa correctional facilities each year?

Data on COVID-19 in Iowa jails and prisons

We gave Iowa a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• Iowa is one of 15 prison systems that had not yet vaccinated more than 60% of the incarcerated population.
• Iowa failed to utilize one of the most obvious, and easiest, tools for reducing the prison population — stopping prison admissions for technical violations of probation and parole (which are not crimes).

For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:

• How many COVID-19 cases in Iowa communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)

Other resources

• Research on Iowa in our Research Library