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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.

Jump to COVID-19 data.

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

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 is one of only 8 states that have 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:

• Our Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic page tracks criminal justice policy responses to the coronavirus all 50 states
• Prisons are COVID-19 hotspots, but as of mid-May 2021, only 47% of people in Maryland prisons had gotten a vaccine
• As of late April 2021, only 50% of corrections staff in Maryland prisons had gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
• How crowded are Maryland prisons, as of December 2020?
• 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)
• As of August 2020, Maryland prisons were not even requiring staff to wear masks at work
• Maryland was right to suspend all medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic. The state should make this change permanent
• State prison and jail population data for February 2022. (Previous data is available for October 2021, June 2021, February 2021, December 2020, September 2020, August 2020, and May 2020.) Data availability varies by state.

Our other articles about Maryland

• Maryland prisons release about 7,408 people every year
• 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 hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records and some prior misdemeanors
• 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
• 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