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South Carolina has an incarceration rate of 678 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 South Carolina and why.

38,000 people from South Carolina are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in South Carolina is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 89,000 different people are booked into local jails in South Carolina.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these South Carolina graphs:

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

Today, South Carolina’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, Hispanics, and Blacks in South Carolina prisons and jails.

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

Our other articles about South Carolina

• Bail companies in South Carolina have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
• South Carolina prisons release about 6,208 people every year
• We're tracking South Carolina's medical copay policies in prisons during the pandemic
• The poorest people in South Carolina prisons get some items for free — but they have to pay the state back
• Fees for sending money to a loved one in a South Carolina prison are unreasonably high
• South Carolina hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records and some prior misdemeanors
• Cruel and unusual punishment: When South Carolina prisons don't provide air conditioning
• How much do incarcerated people in South Carolina earn for their work in prison?
• South Carolina prisons charge a $5 copay to incarcerated people, putting health at risk
• New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in South Carolina
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states — South Carolina gets an F
• Calls from county jails in South Carolina are far more expensive than calls from the state prison
• Who's helping the 46,110 women released from South Carolina correctional facilities each year?
• The hidden costs in South Carolina's "no-cost" prison tablet contract
• Fixing prison-based gerrymandering in South Carolina after the 2010 Census

Data on COVID-19 in South Carolina jails and prisons

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

• South Carolina released fewer people on parole in 2020 than they had in 2019, and approved a smaller percent of parole applications.
• South Carolina 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.
• South Carolina is one of 15 prison systems that had not yet vaccinated more than 60% of the incarcerated population.

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

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

Other resources

• Research on South Carolina in our Research Library