Oklahoma profile
Oklahoma has an incarceration rate of 993 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 Oklahoma and why.
34,000 people from Oklahoma are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Oklahoma is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 96,000 different people are booked into local jails in Oklahoma.
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, Oklahoma’s incarceration rates stand out internationally
People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
See also our detailed graphs about Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks in Oklahoma prisons and jails.
Oklahoma's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in Oklahoma
Prisons and jails in Oklahoma are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
- Jails in Oklahoma charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $2.10 for a 15-minute call.
- Oklahoma suspended its $4 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — It should eliminate them entirely.
- Oklahoma prisons charge families up to a 20% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
- People in Oklahoma prisons with more than $10.50 in their account must pay for hygiene items and other basics.
- People in Oklahoma prisons earn as little as 5¢ an hour for their work.
- New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in Oklahoma
- Oklahoma charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.
Our other articles about Oklahoma
- Bail companies in Oklahoma have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
- Oklahoma prisons release about 9,365 people every year
- How the end of Roe v. Wade will impact the 5,575 women on probation and parole in Oklahoma
- Oklahoma hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
- We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Oklahoma gets an F
- Who's helping the 25,177 women released from Oklahoma correctional facilities each year?
Prison-based gerrymandering in Oklahoma
- Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Oklahoma
- Prison gerrymandering finally solved in McAlester, Okla.
- Accidental prison gerrymandering almost solved in McAlester, Okla.
Data on COVID-19 in Oklahoma jails and prisons
We gave Oklahoma a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:
- Oklahoma released fewer people on parole in 2020 than they had in 2019, and approved a smaller percent of parole applications.
- Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
Other resources
- Research on Oklahoma in our Research Library
