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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.

28,000 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

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

The high cost of being incarcerated in Washington

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

• Jails in Washington charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $1.65 for a 15-minute call.
• Washington suspended its $4 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — It should eliminate them entirely.
• Washington prisons charge families up to a 20% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in Washington prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics if their account balance is more than $25. However, the cost of any items or postage provided by the prison have to be paid back.
• People in Washington prisons earn as little as 36¢ an hour for their work.
• New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in Washington
• The Company Store: A deeper look at prison commissaries in Washington
• Washington charges up to 33¢ for an e-message to or from prison, well above the national average.

Our other articles about Washington

• Washington'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 Washington prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
• Data from Yakima County, WA and other jurisdictions shows: Releasing people pretrial doesn't harm public safety
• Washington makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
• Washington 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
• Washington passed a caregiver mitigation and diversion law that offers home confinement as an alternative to incarceration for primary caregivers that qualify for the parent program.
• Washington prisons release about 24,455 people every year
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Washington
• Washington State hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records until they complete probation and parole sentences
• Food for thought: Prison food in Washington is a public health problem
• 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?

Other resources

• Research on Washington in our Research Library
• 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)