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Kansas has an incarceration rate of 698 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 Kansas and why.

17,000 people from Kansas are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Kansas is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 60,000 different people are booked into local jails in Kansas.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Kansas graphs:

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

Today, Kansas’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 Kansas prisons and jails.

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in Kansas

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

• Jails in Kansas charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $2.10 for a 15-minute call.
• Kansas suspended its $2 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — but should eliminate them entirely.
• Kansas prisons charge families a 34% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in Kansas prisons with a cumulative account balance of more than $12 have to pay for basic hygiene items and writing supplies.
• People in Kansas prisons earn as little as 9¢ an hour for their work.
• Kansas charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.

Our other articles about Kansas

• Kansas is one of 20 states that locks up some people convicted of sex offenses in shadowy "civil commitment" facilities, long after their sentences are over — and often indefinitely
• Kansas prisons release about 6,007 people every year
• Kansas hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
• Cruel and unusual punishment: When Kansas prisons don't provide air conditioning
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Kansas gets an F-
• Who's helping the 25,652 women released from Kansas correctional facilities each year?

Data on COVID-19 in Kansas jails and prisons

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

• Kansas is one of 13 states that did not implement any policies to accelerate releases, promote medical parole or compassionate release, or hasten releases for people incarcerated on minor offenses.
• Kansas 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 Kansas communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)

Other resources

• Research on Kansas in our Research Library