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Pennsylvania has an incarceration rate of 659 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 Pennsylvania and why.

73,000 people from Pennsylvania are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Pennsylvania is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 170,000 different people are booked into local jails in Pennsylvania.

Using 2020 census data, we looked at where people in Pennsylvania prisons come from. We found mass incarceration harms all corners of the state.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Pennsylvania graphs:

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

Today, Pennsylvania’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

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in Pennsylvania

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

• Jails in Pennsylvania charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge up to 90¢ for a 15-minute phone call.
• Pennsylvania suspended many of its $5 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic, it should eliminate them completely.
• Pennsylvania prisons charge families up to a 10% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• If a person in Pennsylvania prisons has more than $10 in their commissary account they may not qualify for assistance to purchase essentials like hygiene items and postage.
• People in Pennsylvania prisons earn as little as 19¢ an hour for their work.
• Pennsylvania charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.

Our other articles about Pennsylvania

• Pennsylvania allows parole officers to restrict whom their clients can be around — even loved ones who are trying to help them
• The parole board in Pennsylvania is releasing 46% fewer people and holding 34% fewer hearings since the pandemic started
• Pennsylvania’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 15% of people in Pennsylvania prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
• Prisons in Northeastern states, like Pennsylvania, have seen the greatest increase in deaths during heatwaves.
• Data from Philadelphia and other jurisdictions shows: Releasing people pretrial doesn't harm public safety
• Pennsylvania makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
• Pennsylvania 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
• Pennsylvania prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
• Bail companies in Pennsylvania have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
• Pennsylvania prisons release about 17,897 people every year
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Pennsylvania
• Pennsylvania granted extremely few commutations to incarcerated people in recent years, including during COVID-19
• Some prisons in Pennsylvania are sited on uninhabitable, toxic wastelands
• Pennsylvania hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records and some prior misdemeanors
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Pennsylvania gets an F
• Who's helping the 37,072 women released from Pennsylvania correctional facilities each year?

Other resources

• Research on Pennsylvania in our Research Library
• In 2021, Pennsylvania became the first state to take steps to end prison gerrymandering through its redistricting commission.

Data on COVID-19 in Pennsylvania jails and prisons

We gave Pennsylvania a "D-" grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• Pennsylvania used multiple release mechanisms to reduce their populations, including accelerated release policies, medical or compassionate release, not incarcerating people for technical parole violations, and releasing people held for minor offenses.
• Nevertheless, Pennsylvania had the sixth highest COVID-19 death rate in prisons of any US state.

For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:

• How many COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)