Virginia has an incarceration rate of 679 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 independent democratic country 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.
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
Virginia's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
Reports and briefings about Virginia's criminal legal system:
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Prisons in Virginia have tablets, but they may be being used to restrict incarcerated people’s access to books and sap them of the little money they have.
The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 14% of people in Virginia prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
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.