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Washington State has an incarceration rate of 455 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 Washington and why.

37,000 people from Washington are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Washington is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 98,000 different people are booked into local jails in Washington.

Using 2020 census data, we looked at where people in Washington prisons come from. We found many of the state's smaller, more rural areas send a disproportionate portion of their populations to prison.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Washington graphs:

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

Today, Washington’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, Blacks, and American Indians/Native Americans in Washington prisons and jails.

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

Our other articles about Washington

• Jails in Washington charge much more than necessary for phone calls, reaping profits for companies — and several jails may even be ignoring federal caps on phone rates
• Washington prisons release about 24,455 people every year
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Washington
• Fees for sending money to a loved one in a Washington prison are unreasonably high
• Washington State hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records until they complete probation and parole sentences
• How much do incarcerated people in Washington earn for their work in prison?
• Washington prisons charge a $4 copay to incarcerated people, putting health at risk
• Food for thought: Prison food in Washington is a public health problem
• The Company Store: A deeper look at prison commissaries in Washington
• New data: Low incomes - but high fees - for people on probation in Washington
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Washington gets an F-
• Who's helping the 63,451 women released from Washington correctional facilities each year?
• In 2019, Washington became the fifth state end end prison gerrymandering.

Data on COVID-19 in Washington jails and prisons

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

• As of December 2020, Washington prisons were still over 95% capacity.
• Washington 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).

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

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

Other resources

• Research on Washington in our Research Library