Maine profile   

5,000 people from Maine are behind bars today

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Maine graphs:

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

Today, Maine’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, Blacks, and American Indians/Native Americans in Maine prisons and jails.

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

Our other articles about Maine

• Prison-based gerrymandering costs Maine 8th graders local schooling, by Peter Wagner, February 15, 2011
• Phantom Constituents in Maine’s Regional School Unit 13: How the Census Bureau’s outdated method of counting prisoners harms democracy, by Peter Wagner, January 15, 2009

Other resources

• Research on Maine in our Research Library