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Maryland has an incarceration rate of 531 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 Maryland and why.

36,000 people from Maryland are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Maryland is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 83,000 different people are booked into local jails in Maryland.

Using 2020 census data, we looked at where people in Maryland prisons come from. We found they come from all corners of the state, but disproportionately from Baltimore and some Eastern Shore communities.

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

• Bail companies in Maryland have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
• Jails in Maryland charge much more than necessary for phone calls, reaping profits for companies
• Maryland prisons release about 7,408 people every year
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Maryland
• People in Maryland prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics — and those without cash have to meet strict "indigence" criteria to get financial assistance
• Maryland was right to suspend all medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic. The state should make this change permanent
• Maryland hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records and some prior misdemeanors
• 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
• 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

Prison-based gerrymandering in Maryland

• Maryland enacts law to count incarcerated people at their home addresses, ending prison gerrymandering across the state
• 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

Data on COVID-19 in Maryland jails and prisons

We gave Maryland a "D-" grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• Maryland was one of only 8 states that failed to reduce their prison population by more than 10% during the pandemic.
• One of the easiest ways to reduce prison populations — especially during a pandemic — is to suspend admissions to prisons for technical violations of probation and parole (which are not crimes). Yet most states, including Maryland, failed to utilize this simple tool of population reduction.

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

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

Other resources

• Research on Maryland in our Research Library