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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.

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

Our other articles about Illinois

• Illinois has two jail-based polling locations — in Cook County and Will county — that enable people detained in the facilities to cast ballots in elections.
• Illinois prisons release about 23,791 people every year
• In some Illinois prisons, incarcerated people are forced to drink and breathe contaminants
• Illinois is one of just a handful of states that do not charge incarcerated people copays for medical care.
• People in Illinois prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics — and those without cash have to meet strict "indigence" criteria to get financial assistance
• Fees for sending money to a loved one in an Illinois prison are unreasonably high
• 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?
• In February 2021, Illinois passed a law ending prison gerrymandering.
• Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Illinois

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:

• 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)

Other resources

• Research on Illinois in our Research Library