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Illinois has an incarceration rate of 497 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 Illinois and why.

Jump to COVID-19 data.

76,000 people from Illinois are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Illinois is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 173,000 different people are booked into local jails in Illinois.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Illinois graphs:

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

Today, Illinois’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 and Blacks in Illinois prisons and jails.

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

Data on COVID-19 in Illinois jails and prisons

We gave Illinois a "D" grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• We estimate that prisons and jails led to an additional 47,298 COVID-19 cases in Illinois in the summer of 2020 alone.
• Illinois 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:

• Our Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic page tracks criminal justice policy responses to the coronavirus all 50 states
• As of late April, only 36% of corrections staff in Illinois prisons had gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
• How many COVID-19 cases in Illinois communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
• As of August 2020, Illinois prisons were not even requiring staff to wear masks at work

Our other articles about Illinois

• How much do incarcerated people in Illinois earn for their work in prison?
• The Company Store: A deeper look at prison commissaries in Illinois
• New data: Low incomes - but high fees - for people on probation in Illinois
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Illinois gets an F-
• Illinois has some of the highest jail phone rates in the country
• Who's helping the 36,065 women released from Illinois correctional facilities each year?
• Ending prison gerrymandering in Illinois campaign and resource page
• Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Illinois

Other resources

• Research on Illinois in our Research Library