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New Jersey has an incarceration rate of 341 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 New Jersey and why.

24,000 people from New Jersey are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in New Jersey is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 86,000 different people are booked into local jails in New Jersey.

Using 2020 census data, we looked at where people in New Jersey prisons come from. We found they come from all corners of the state, but disproportionately from the state's largest and smallest communities.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these New Jersey graphs:

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

Today, New Jersey’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

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in New Jersey

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

• Jails in New Jersey charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge 66¢ for a 15-minute call.
• New Jersey suspended its $5 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — but should eliminate them completely.
• New Jersey prisons charge families up to a 15% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in New Jersey prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics unless they have zero funds in their account and no financial support.
• People in New Jersey prisons earn as little as 26¢ an hour for their work.
• New Jersey charges up to 35¢ for an e-message to or from prison, well above the national average.

Our other articles about New Jersey

• The parole board in New Jersey is releasing 56% fewer people and holding 56% fewer hearings since the pandemic started
• New Jersey's choice to criminalize "failure to appear" may be hurting public safety
• The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 11% of people in New Jersey prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
• Prisons in Northeastern states, like New Jersey, have seen the greatest increase in deaths during heatwaves.
• Data from New Jersey and other jurisdictions shows: Releasing people pretrial doesn't harm public safety
• New Jersey makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
• New Jersey 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
• New Jersey passed a caregiver proximity law requiring that a primary caregiver is incarcerated in a facility as close as possible to where their child(ren) reside.
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in New Jersey
• New Jersey prisons release about 8,182 people every year
• New Jersey hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records and some prior misdemeanors
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - New Jersey gets a C
• New Jersey is 1 of only 8 states still suspending driver's licenses for drug offenses unrelated to driving
• Who's helping the 18,600 women released from New Jersey correctional facilities each year?
• New Jersey legislation aims to protect in-person visits from video visitation
• In 2020, passed legislation making it the seventh state to end prison gerrymandering.
• Learn more about the history of prison gerrymandering in New Jersey campaign and resource page

Other resources

• Research on New Jersey in our Research Library

Data on COVID-19 in New Jersey jails and prisons

We gave New Jersey a "C" grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• New Jersey reduced their population the most out of all 50 states, and had the second highest vaccination rate.
• Nevertheless, New Jersey 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 New Jersey communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)