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Maryland has an incarceration rate of 585 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 many wealthy democracies do. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Maryland and why.

Are you looking for information on what jails and prisons in Maryland are doing to stop COVID-19? See our regularly-updated coronavirus response page.

36,000 people from Maryland are behind bars

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Maryland graphs:

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

Today, Maryland’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 Maryland prisons and jails.

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

Our other articles about Maryland

• We graded every state’s response to the coronavirus in prisons and jails. Maryland got an F+
• Report: The Right Investment? Corrections Spending in Baltimore City
• How much do incarcerated people in Maryland earn for their work in prison?
• Maryland prisons charge a $2 copay to incarcerated people, putting health at risk
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Maryland gets a D
• Calls from county jails in Maryland are far more expensive than calls from the state prison
• Who's helping the 28,467 women released from Maryland correctional facilities each year?
• Maryland proposes - and promptly withdraws - plan to ban letters to people incarcerated in the state’s prisons
• Letter to the Editor: Cecil County, MD, should cancel jail letter ban plan

Prison-based gerrymandering in Maryland

• Maryland enacts law to count incarcerated people at their home addresses, ending prison gerrymandering across the state
• Historic election for "one person, one vote" in Maryland
• Implementing Reform: How Maryland & New York Ended Prison Gerrymandering
• Maryland law brings long-awaited racial justice to Somerset County
• Supreme Court upholds Maryland law ending prison-based gerrymandering; Huge victory for fair representation
• Importing Constituents: Incarcerated People and Political Clout in Maryland

Other resources

• Research on Maryland in our Research Library