Michigan profile
Michigan has an incarceration rate of 599 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 Michigan and why.
53,000 people from Michigan are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Michigan is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 163,000 different people are booked into local jails in Michigan.
Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years
- total numbers rather than rates.
- Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
- Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
Today, Michigan’s incarceration rates stand out internationally
People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
See also our detailed graphs about Whites and Blacks in Michigan prisons and jails.
Michigan's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in Michigan
Prisons and jails in Michigan are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
- Jails in Michigan charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $2.10 for a 15-minute call.
- Michigan suspended its $5 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — but should eliminate them entirely.
- Michigan prisons charge families up to a 20% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
- People in Michigan prisons must have an account balance of less than $11 to be eligible for a loan from the prison to purchase basic hygiene products and stamps — money they will have to pay back.
- People in Michigan prisons earn as little as 14¢ an hour for their work.
- New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in Michigan
- Michigan charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.
Our other articles about Michigan
- Michigan prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
- Michigan prisons release about 11,440 people every year
- Who's helping the 52,199 women released from Michigan correctional facilities each year?
- Otsego County: A cautionary tale for counties considering a big, costly new jail
- Michigan hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
- We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Michigan gets a C-
- Michigan is 1 of only 8 states still suspending driver's licenses for drug offenses unrelated to driving
- Michigan ACLU uses our map, testifies against harmful loitering bill
- Prison gerrymandering in Michigan:
Data on COVID-19 in Michigan jails and prisons
We gave Michigan a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:
- Michigan released fewer people on parole in 2020 than they had in 2019, and approved a smaller percent of parole applications.
- Michigan failed to utilize one of the most obvious, and easiest, tools for reducing the prison population — stopping prison admissions for technical violations of probation and parole (which are not crimes).
For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:
- How many COVID-19 cases in Michigan communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
Other resources
- Research on Michigan in our Research Library
