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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.

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.

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

If you're looking for case or death counts, our friends at the COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project have a detailed spreadsheet whose numbers may be as current as (or more current than) the state prison system's own data. To learn how Maryland ranks on other important pandemic-related issues, see our resources below:

• Our Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic page tracks criminal justice policy responses to the coronavirus all 50 states
• Maryland is one of only a handful of states doing the right thing and putting incarcerated people in Phase 1 of vaccine distribution
• We gave Maryland a failing grade for its response to the coronavirus in jails and prisons, and compared it to other states
• 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

Our other articles about Maryland

• 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
• 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