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Vermont has an incarceration rate of 288 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 Vermont and why.

1,500 people from Vermont are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Vermont is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 9,000 different people are booked into local jails in Vermont.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

We inquired about the drop in Vermont's incarceration rate in the mid to late-1990s and learned it was the result of a new intermediate sanctions program and the increased use of furlough. This was a one time improvement after which a new law decreased the use of bail, causing the population to rise again.
Also see these Vermont graphs:

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

Today, Vermont’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

Vermont's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons

The high cost of being incarcerated in Vermont

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

• Prisons in Vermont charge up to $1.04 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies.
• Vermont is one of just a handful of states that do not charge incarcerated people copays for medical care.
• Vermont prisons and Access Corrections don't report data on fees to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• Vermont prisons don’t define indigence so it is unclear whether indigent people in Vermont must pay for basic hygiene items.
• People in Vermont prisons earn as little as 25¢ an hour for their work.
• Vermont charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.

Our other articles about Vermont

• Vermont allows parole officers to restrict whom their clients can be around — even loved ones who are trying to help them
• The parole board in Vermont is releasing 49% fewer people and holding 46% fewer hearings since the pandemic started
• Vermont’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 14% of people in Vermont prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
• Prisons in Northeastern states, like Vermont, have seen the greatest increase in deaths during heatwaves.
• Vermont makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
• Vermont prisons release about 2,528 people every year
• Vermont has granted zero commutations to incarcerated people in recent years, including during COVID-19
• Vermont hurts jury diversity by excluding people with felony records
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Vermont gets a D+
• Who's helping the 280 women released from Vermont correctional facilities each year?

Other resources

• Research on Vermont in our Research Library

Data on COVID-19 in Vermont jails and prisons

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

• Vermont 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).
• Vermont is one of 15 prison systems that does not have a policy making hand sanitizer widely available or providing free hygiene products — like soap — to incarcerated people.

For more detail, see our report States of Emergency.