Kansas profile   

21,000 people from Kansas are behind bars today

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

Our other articles about Kansas

• Kansas District Court Ends Wyandotte County Jail's "Postcard-Only" Mail Policy, by ACLU, February 24, 2015
• One Last Chance to Avoid Prison-Based Gerrymandering in Kansas, by Peter Wagner and Brenda Wright, Prison Policy Initiative and Dēmos, May 28, 2012
• Kansas shouldn’t use prisoners to influence redistricting, by Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star, March 4, 2012
• Counting prisoners is an issue for us all, by Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star, February 17, 2010

Other resources

• Research on Kansas in our Research Library