Record · State
Prisons in Alaska
Alaska held 4,478 people under its correctional authority, an imprisonment rate of 202 per 100,000 residents, at the end of 2023, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
That is rank 38 of 50.
2023
- 4,478
- Prisoners
- 202
- Imprisonment rate
- Per 100,000 residents of all ages, as the Bureau computed it.
- 266
- Rate among adults
- Per 100,000 residents aged 18 or older.
- 4,058
- Men
- 420
- Women
- 1,602
- Admissions
- Sentenced prisoners admitted during the year.
2012 to 2023
12 years, from the 11 editions the Bureau publishes as a machine-readable bundle. Each edition carries its own year and the one before, so every year but the first and last is published twice. Where the two disagree, the later edition is shown, because the Bureau revises rather than restates.
The Bureau revised Alaska’s rate by more than 2% between editions in 2014: 281 in one edition and 374 in the other. A change across those years is partly a change in what the Bureau published.
Admissions and releases are blank before 2019. The Bureau published them in one table with two blocks until then, each with a column called “Total”, and this pipeline cannot yet tell one from the other. A blank is the honest answer.
Alaska's prison population is 22.7% below its 2014 peak; 4,478 in 2023
People under Alaska's jurisdiction at year end, 2012 to 2023. Jurisdiction rather than custody: the state holds jurisdiction over a prisoner it houses elsewhere, which is the count the Bureau of Justice Statistics publishes by state.
Source: The Bureau of Justice Statistics
About this chart
The figures
| Year | Prisoners |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 5,633 |
| 2013 | 5,081 |
| 2014 | 5,794 |
| 2015 | 5,338 |
| 2016 | 4,434 |
| 2017 | 4,399 |
| 2018 | 4,380 |
| 2019 | 4,475 |
| 2020 | 4,578 |
| 2021 | 4,639 |
| 2022 | 4,778 |
| 2023 | 4,478 |
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2 more columns on a wider screen
| Year | Prisoners | Rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 5,633 | 405 |
| 2013 | 5,081 | 364 |
| 2014 | 5,794 | 281 |
| 2015 | 5,338 | 306 |
| 2016 | 4,434 | 282 |
| 2017 | 4,399 | 258 |
| 2018 | 4,380 | 264 |
| 2019 | 4,475 | 243 |
| 2020 | 4,578 | 245 |
| 2021 | 4,639 | 213 |
| 2022 | 4,778 | 205 |
| 2023 | 4,478 | 202 |
Race and Hispanic origin · 2023
The Bureau’s own categories, under its own labels. This is the composition of the prison population, not a rate: it is not divided by the population of each group, and it should not be read as one. Percentages are of the people whose race the state reported.
| Category | Prisoners | Share |
|---|---|---|
| american indian alaska native | 1,790 | 40.0% |
| white | 1,752 | 39.1% |
| black | 447 | 10.0% |
| asian | 238 | 5.3% |
| hispanic | 134 | 3.0% |
| did not report | 78 | 1.7% |
| unknown | 39 | 0.9% |
Related
Sources
- Bureau of Justice Statistics — Prisoners — U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics · BJS reuse policy · retrieved September 19, 2026
Compiled automatically from Bureau of Justice Statistics — Prisoners by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built
Data retrieved
Alaska elsewhere on the Factbook
- Reported crime Crime and justice
Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.
- Most dangerous cities in Alaska Crime and justice
What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.
- Arrests by race, sex and age Crime and justice
Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.
- Hate crime Crime and justice
Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.
- Federal obligations Federal spending
What federal agencies obligated against a place of performance in the state, per resident and by agency.
- Registered nonprofits Nonprofits
How many organizations the IRS lists in the state, what they report as revenue, and which kinds of work they do.
- Payments to doctors Health
What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.
- Farm program payments Farm subsidies
What the Farm Service Agency paid through the state’s county offices, by program and by recipient. The offices that administered the payments, not a count of farms: a recipient addressed elsewhere is counted where they were paid.
- Paycheck Protection Program loans PPP loans
The PPP loans SBA guaranteed to businesses operating in the state, by county, with how many carry a forgiveness amount and how many were charged off. Loans, not businesses: a business with two draws is two loans.
- Public schools Schools
Pupils, schools and teachers, the largest districts, what districts spend per pupil and where the money comes from, and the colleges that take federal student aid.
- Banks and credit unions Banks and credit unions
The FDIC-insured banks headquartered in the state and their offices, and the credit unions based there and their sites, each per resident and against every other state.
- Housing Housing
The homes under HUD’s rental assistance programs in the state, by program and county, and its tax-credit housing, each per resident and against every other state.
- Mortgage lending Mortgage lending
The mortgage applications, loans and denials lenders reported in the state under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and its largest lenders and counties.
- College athletics Sports
Every college in the state that reported to the Equity in Athletics survey, ranked by its athletics revenue, with its expenses, athletes and athletic aid.
- Federal civilian workforce Federal salaries
Federal civilian employees stationed in the state by agency and occupation, with the pay OPM publishes and the share it withholds.
- The Alaska Factbook entry Across the Factbook
Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.
The immigration hub has no page for this state: EOIR runs no immigration court here, and CBP publishes by sector and field office, which are its own areas of responsibility rather than a geography. Immigration and the border.