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North Dakota has an incarceration rate of 596 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 North Dakota and why.

Are you looking for information on what jails and prisons in North Dakota are doing to stop COVID-19? See our regularly-updated coronavirus response page.

4,600 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

Also see these North Dakota graphs:

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

graphic comparing the incarceration rates of the founding NATO members with the incarceration rates of the United States and the state of North Dakota. The incarceration rate of 698 per 100,000 for the United States and 596 for North Dakota is much higher than any of the founding NATO members 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.