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Louisiana has an incarceration rate of 1,094 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 Louisiana and why.

50,000 people from Louisiana are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Louisiana is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 86,000 different people are booked into local jails in Louisiana.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

More than half of the people held in jails in Louisiana are held for federal or state agencies, primarily the state prison system. To avoid counting them twice, this population is not included in the yellow jails line. For annual counts of people in jails held for federal or state authorizes in Louisiana, see our table "Jail and prison incarcerated populations by state over time."

Also see these Louisiana graphs:

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

This graph excludes people held for state or federal authorities from the total count of people held in Louisiana jails. Because a majority (66%) of the population in Louisiana jails is held for the state prison system, this graph likely overstates the convicted population and understates the pre-trial population.

Today, Louisiana’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 Louisiana prisons and jails.

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in Louisiana

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

• Jails in Louisiana charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $2.10 for a 15-minute phone call.
• Louisiana suspended its $3 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic, it should eliminate them completely.
• Louisiana prisons charge families up to a 18% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• Louisiana's policy on resources for the poorest people in prisons lacks important information.
• People in Louisiana prisons earn as little as 4¢ an hour for their work.
• Louisiana charges up to 30¢ for an e-message to or from prison; above the national average.

Our other articles about Louisiana

• Louisiana passed a caregiver mitigation and diversion law that expands the use of sentencing alternatives to incarceration for primary caregivers.
• Bail companies in Louisiana have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
• Louisiana prisons release about 16,835 people every year
• How the end of Roe v. Wade will impact the 14,395 women on probation and parole in Louisiana
• Some prisons in Louisiana are sited on uninhabitable, toxic wastelands
• Louisiana hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
• Cruel and unusual punishment: When Louisiana prisons don't provide air conditioning
• New data: Low incomes - but high fees - for people on probation in Louisiana
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Louisiana gets an F
• Who's helping the 47,788 women released from Louisiana correctional facilities each year?
• Vera finds costs outweigh benefits in Louisiana's “user-funded” criminal justice system
• Louisiana Local Governments' Struggles With Prison-Based Gerrymandering Could Be Eased By State

Data on COVID-19 in Louisiana jails and prisons

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

• Louisiana state prisons — despite being some of the most overcrowded in the country — only reduced their population by 10.25% from March 2020 to July 2021.
• The state of Louisiana had a Furlough Release Panel that reviewed 594 people in prisons for release, but the Panel was suspended in June 2020 — merely three months after the pandemic started.

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

• How many COVID-19 cases in Louisiana communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)

Other resources

• Research on Louisiana in our Research Library