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Mississippi has an incarceration rate of 1,031 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 any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Mississippi and why.

27,000 people from Mississippi are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Mississippi is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 84,000 different people are booked into local jails in Mississippi.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

More than half of the people held in jails in Mississippi are held for federal or state agencies, primarily the state prison system.To avoid counting them twice, this population is not included in the yellow jails line. For annual counts of people in jails held for federal or state authorizes in Mississippi, see our table "Jail and prison incarcerated populations by state over time."

Also see these Mississippi graphs:

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

This graph excludes people held for state or federal authorities from the total count of people held in Mississippi jails. Because a tremendous proportion (48%) of the population in Mississippi’s jails is held for the state prison system, this graph likely overstates the convicted population and understates the pre-trial population.

Today, Mississippi’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, Hispanics, and Blacks in Mississippi prisons and jails.

The relatively high proportion of Hispanics incarcerated in Mississippi is due largely to the Adams County Correctional Center, a Corrections Corporation of American facility that contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to hold immigration detainees.

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in Mississippi

Prisons and jails in Mississippi are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:

• Jails in Mississippi charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge 59¢ for a 15-minute call.
• Mississippi suspended its $6 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — but it should eliminate them completely.
• Mississippi prisons charge families up to a 17% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in Mississippi prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics — regardless of their financial resources.
• People in Mississippi prisons earn nothing for regular jobs and as little as 20¢ an hour for work in state-owned businesses.
• New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in Mississippi
• Mississippi does not offer e-messaging in prisons.

Our other articles about Mississippi

• Some Mississippi prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
• Bail companies in Mississippi have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
• Mississippi prisons release about 6,971 people every year
• How the end of Roe v. Wade will impact the 7,660 women on probation and parole in Mississippi
• Mississippi hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
• Cruel and unusual punishment: When Mississippi prisons don't provide air conditioning
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Mississippi gets a C-
• Mississippi is 1 of only 8 states still suspending driver's licenses for drug offenses unrelated to driving
• Who's helping the 18,172 women released from Mississippi correctional facilities each year?
• From the Prison Gerrymandering Blog: Mississippi Attorney General: Census should change prison count

Data on COVID-19 in Mississippi jails and prisons

We gave Mississippi a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• Mississippi has one of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates among prison systems, but is also one of the few states that had not yet implemented mass testing in prisons as of April 2021, suggesting that the low case rates are — in part — attributable to undercounting.
• Mississippi is one of 13 states that did not explicitly mention incarcerated people in their vaccination rollout plan.
• Mississippi is one of 13 states that did not implement any policies to accelerate releases, promote medical parole or compassionate release, prevent incarceration for technical violations of probation and parole, or hasten releases for people incarcerated on minor offenses.

For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:

• How many COVID-19 cases in Mississippi communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)

Other resources

• Research on Mississippi in our Research Library