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Maine has an incarceration rate of 363 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 Maine and why.

Jump to COVID-19 data.

5,000 people from Maine are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Maine is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 14,000 different people are booked into local jails in Maine.

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

Data on COVID-19 in Maine 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 Maine 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
• We gave Maine a D- for its response to the coronavirus in jails and prisons. But most other states scored even lower
• As of August 2020, Maine prisons were not even requiring staff to wear masks at work
• We're tracking Maine's medical copay policies in prisons during the pandemic
• State prison and jail population data for May, August, September, and December 2020 (data availability varies by state)

Our other articles about Maine

• How much do incarcerated people in Maine earn for their work in prison?
• Maine prisons charge a $5 copay to incarcerated people, putting health at risk
• New data: Low incomes - but high fees - for people on probation in Maine
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Maine gets an F-
• Who's helping the 5,581 women released from Maine correctional facilities each year?
• The hidden costs in Maine's "no-cost" prison tablet contract
• Prison-based gerrymandering costs Maine 8th graders local schooling
• Phantom Constituents in Maine’s Regional School Unit 13: How the Census Bureau’s outdated method of counting prisoners harms democracy

Other resources

• Research on Maine in our Research Library