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Prisons in Iowa

Iowa held 8,831 people under its correctional authority, an imprisonment rate of 274 per 100,000 residents, at the end of 2023, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

That is rank 32 of 50.

2023

8,831
Prisoners
274
Imprisonment rate
Per 100,000 residents of all ages, as the Bureau computed it.
354
Rate among adults
Per 100,000 residents aged 18 or older.
8,112
Men
719
Women
3,769
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.

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.

Iowa's prison population is 6.2% below its 2018 peak; 8,831 in 2023

People under Iowa'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

Iowa's prison population is 6.2% below its 2018 peak; 8,831 in 2023. People under Iowa'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.
YearPrisoners
20128,733
20138,697
20148,838
20158,849
20169,031
20179,024
20189,419
20199,282
20208,307
20218,562
20228,473
20238,831

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2 more columns on a wider screen

Prisoners under Iowa's jurisdiction, 2012 to 2023
YearPrisonersRate per 100,000
20128,733282
20138,697279
20148,838282
20158,849282
20169,031287
20179,024286
20189,419298
20199,282293
20208,307260
20218,562267
20228,473264
20238,831274

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.

Prisoners under Iowa's jurisdiction by race and Hispanic origin, 2023
CategoryPrisonersShare
white5,47162.0%
black2,34826.6%
hispanic7027.9%
american indian alaska native2042.3%
other961.1%
unknown100.1%
did not report00.0%

Sources

Compiled automatically from Bureau of Justice Statistics — Prisoners by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built

Data retrieved

Iowa elsewhere on the Factbook

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  • 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

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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.