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Virginia has an incarceration rate of 749 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 Virginia and why.

60,000 people from Virginia are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Virginia is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 111,000 different people are booked into local jails in Virginia.

Using 2020 census data, we looked at where people in Virginia prisons and jails come from. We found many of the state's biggest and smallest communities are disproportionately harmed by mass incarceration.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Virginia graphs:

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

Today, Virginia’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 Virginia prisons and jails.

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in Virginia

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

• Jails in Virginia charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge 61¢ for a 15-minute call.
• Virginia suspended medical copays in prisons as part of a pilot program prior to the pandemic — it should make these changes permanent.
• Virginia prisons charge families up to a 15% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in Virginia prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics like writing supplies unless they have less than $5.00 in their spending account.
• People in Virginia prisons earn as little as 27¢ an hour for their work.
• Virginia charges up to 39¢ for an e-message to or from prison, well above the national average.

Our other articles about Virginia

• Virginia 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
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Virginia
• Virginia prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
• Virginia prisons release about 12,602 people every year
• In 2021, roughly half the staff at two Virginia prisons quit their jobs
• Virginia hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
• Virginia was the ninth state to end prison gerrymandering
• Cruel and unusual punishment: When Virginia prisons don't provide air conditioning
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Virginia gets an F-
• Virginia is 1 of only 8 states still suspending driver's licenses for drug offenses unrelated to driving
• Who's helping the 53,037 women released from Virginia correctional facilities each year?

Data on COVID-19 in Virginia jails and prisons

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

• Virginia failed to utilize one of the most obvious, and easiest, tools for reducing the prison population — stopping prison admissions for noncriminal violations of probation and parole. (In a separate briefing, we found that Virginia returned as many people to prison for noncriminal violations in 2020 as it did in 2019.)

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

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

Other resources

• Research on Virginia in our Research Library