Utah has an incarceration rate of 396 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 democratic country on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Utah and why.
13,000 people from Utah are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Utah is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 32,000 different people are booked into local jails in Utah.
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 Utah jails. Because a significant proportion (30%) of the population in Utah's jails is held for the other authorities, this graph likely overstates the convicted population and understates the pre-trial population.
Today, Utah’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
Utah's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
In Utah prisons, breaking certain rules can come with fines of $20-$600 that take months of work to pay off
People on parole in Utah can be sent back to prison for "associating" with anyone who has a felony conviction — even loved ones who are trying to support them
The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 12% of people in Utah prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
March 19, 2025: Join Prison Policy Initiative’s Advocacy Department at 1 PM EST on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, for a webinar about understanding recidivism. We will cover strategies from our recidivism toolkit, including an overview of recidivism statistics and what they really mean, how to combat the “Willie Horton” effect, and ways that advocates can transform the narrative around reentry to make it less focused on negative outcomes and more focused on the ways that returning citizens contribute to their communities.
April 15-17, 2025: Sarah Staudt, our Director of Policy and Advocacy, will be attending the MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge Network Meeting from April 15-17 in Chicago. Drop her a line if you’d like to meet up!
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