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Nevada has an incarceration rate of 713 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 Nevada and why.

Jump to COVID-19 data.

23,000 people from Nevada are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Nevada is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 38,000 different people are booked into local jails in Nevada.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Nevada graphs:

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

Today, Nevada’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 and Blacks in Nevada prisons and jails.

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

Data on COVID-19 in Nevada jails and prisons

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

• Nevada released fewer people on parole in 2020 than they had in 2019.
• Nevada 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:

• Our Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic page tracks criminal justice policy responses to the coronavirus all 50 states
• As of late April, only 44% of corrections staff in Nevada prisons had gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
• Nevada released fewer people on parole in 2020 than in 2019
• How crowded are Nevada prisons, as of December 2020?
• How many COVID-19 cases in Nevada communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
• As of August 2020, Nevada prisons were not even requiring staff to wear masks at work
• Nevada is the only state to continue charging copays in prisons during the pandemic
• State prison and jail population data for May, August, September, and December 2020 (data availability varies by state)

Our other articles about Nevada

• Nevada hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
• How much do incarcerated people in Nevada earn for their work in prison?
• Nevada prisons charge a $8 copay to incarcerated people, putting health at risk
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Nevada gets a D
• Some jails in Nevada charge $12.00 or more for a 15-minute phone call
• Who's helping the 35,190 women released from Nevada correctional facilities each year?
• Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Nevada, by the Prison Policy Initiative and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
• More on prison gerrymandering in Nevada

Other resources

• Research on Nevada in our Research Library