HELP US GET YOU THE DATA YOU NEEDThe Prison Policy Initiative specializes in producing the information that you need to support campaigns for justice in your state. Can you help us expand this work?
Thank you,
—Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
West Virginia has an incarceration rate of 731 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 West Virginia and why.
11,000 people from West Virginia are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in West Virginia is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 34,000 different people are booked into local jails in West Virginia.
Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years
This graph excludes people held for state or federal authorities from the total count of people held in West Virginia jails. Because a significant proportion (31%) of the population in West Virginia’s jails is held for the state prison system and the U.S. Marshals Service, this graph likely overstates the convicted population and understates the pre-trial population.
Today, West 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
West Virginia's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in West Virginia
Prisons and jails in West Virginia are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
The COVID-19 death rate in West Virginia prisons is almost twice that of the general population.
West Virginia 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.
West Virginia is one of 15 prison systems that has not yet vaccinated more than 60% of the incarcerated population.
For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources: