North Dakota profile
North Dakota has an incarceration rate of 583 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 North Dakota and why.
4,000 people from North Dakota are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in North Dakota is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 13,000 different people are booked into local jails in North Dakota.
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, North Dakota’s incarceration rates stand out internationally
People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
See also our detailed graphs about Whites, Hispanics, Blacks, and American Indians/Native Americans in North Dakota prisons and jails.
North Dakota's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in North Dakota
Prisons and jails in North Dakota are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
- Jails in North Dakota charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $1.20 for a 15-minute call.
- North Dakota suspended its $3 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — it should eliminate them entirely.
- North Dakota prisons charge families up to a 20% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
- People in North Dakota prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics — unless they have less than $15 in their spending account and meet work requirements. Those that qualify for financial assistance have to pay the state back.
- People in North Dakota prisons earn as little as 19¢ an hour for their work.
- North Dakota charges up to 40¢ for an e-message to or from prison, among the highest rates in the nation.
Our other articles about North Dakota
- North Dakota is one of 20 states that locks up some people convicted of sex offenses in shadowy "civil commitment" facilities, long after their sentences are over — and often indefinitely
- North Dakota prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
- North Dakota prisons release about 1,358 people every year
- How the end of Roe v. Wade will impact the 1,760 women on probation and parole in North Dakota
- We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states — North Dakota gets an F-
Data on COVID-19 in North Dakota jails and prisons
We gave North Dakota a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:
- North Dakota is one of only 8 states that have failed to reduce their prison population by more than 10% during the pandemic.
- North Dakota 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).
Other resources
- Research on North Dakota in our Research Library
