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Idaho has an incarceration rate of 761 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 Idaho and why.

Jump to COVID-19 data.

13,000 people from Idaho are behind bars

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Idaho graphs:

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

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Idaho is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 27,000 different people are booked into local jails in Idaho.

Today, Idaho’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, Blacks, and American Indians/Native Americans in Idaho prisons and jails.

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

Data on COVID-19 in Idaho jails and prisons

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

• Idaho is one of only 8 states that have failed to reduce their prison population by more than 10% during the pandemic.
• Idaho is one of 13 states that did not explicitly mention incarcerated people in their vaccination rollout plan.
• Idaho is one of 13 states that did not implement any policies to accelerate releases, promote medical parole or compassionate release, prevent incarceration for technical violations of probation and parole, or hasten releases for people incarcerated on minor offenses.

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

• Our Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic page tracks criminal justice policy responses to the coronavirus all 50 states
• Prisons are COVID-19 hotspots, but as of mid-May, only 37% of people in Idaho prisons had gotten a vaccine
• As of late April, only 28% of corrections staff in Idaho prisons had gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
• Idaho prisons were still over 100% capacity in December 2020, several months into the pandemic
• How many COVID-19 cases in Idaho communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
• Idaho suspended medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic - why is it bringing copays back now?

Our other articles about Idaho

• Idaho hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records until they complete probation and parole sentences
• How much do incarcerated people in Idaho earn for their work in prison?
• Idaho prisons charge a $5 copay to incarcerated people, putting health at risk
• New data: Low incomes - but high fees - for people on probation in Idaho
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Idaho gets an F
• Some jails in Idaho charge $12.00 or more for a 15-minute phone call
• Who's helping the 12,254 women released from Idaho correctional facilities each year?
• Census prison quirk dilutes democracy in Idaho

Other resources

• Research on Idaho in our Research Library