Record · State
Prisons in New Mexico
New Mexico held 5,586 people under its correctional authority, an imprisonment rate of 259 per 100,000 residents, at the end of 2023, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
That is rank 34 of 50.
2023
- 5,586
- Prisoners
- 259
- Imprisonment rate
- Per 100,000 residents of all ages, as the Bureau computed it.
- 328
- Rate among adults
- Per 100,000 residents aged 18 or older.
- 5,044
- Men
- 542
- Women
- 2,568
- 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.
New Mexico's prison population is 23.2% below its 2017 peak; 5,586 in 2023
People under New Mexico'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 | 6,727 |
| 2013 | 6,931 |
| 2014 | 7,021 |
| 2015 | 7,104 |
| 2016 | 7,055 |
| 2017 | 7,276 |
| 2018 | 7,030 |
| 2019 | 6,723 |
| 2020 | 5,500 |
| 2021 | 5,154 |
| 2022 | 4,970 |
| 2023 | 5,586 |
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2 more columns on a wider screen
| Year | Prisoners | Rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 6,727 | 315 |
| 2013 | 6,931 | 320 |
| 2014 | 7,021 | 329 |
| 2015 | 7,104 | 336 |
| 2016 | 7,055 | 334 |
| 2017 | 7,276 | 343 |
| 2018 | 7,030 | 331 |
| 2019 | 6,723 | 315 |
| 2020 | 5,500 | 257 |
| 2021 | 5,154 | 240 |
| 2022 | 4,970 | 231 |
| 2023 | 5,586 | 259 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| hispanic | 3,220 | 57.6% |
| white | 1,361 | 24.4% |
| american indian alaska native | 512 | 9.2% |
| black | 360 | 6.4% |
| did not report | 57 | 1.0% |
| unknown | 45 | 0.8% |
| native hawaiian other pacific islander | 23 | 0.4% |
| asian | 8 | 0.1% |
| other | 0 | 0.0% |
| two or more races | 0 | 0.0% |
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
New Mexico 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 New Mexico 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.
- Immigration courts Immigration and the border
The EOIR courts sitting in the state, what they completed and still have pending, and how far apart their asylum grant rates are. The courts, not the state’s residents: a detention court hears cases from far outside it.
- 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.
- Population, age, income and origin Demographics
The Census Bureau's population estimates year by year, with births, deaths and migration, and age, income, poverty, housing and origin from the American Community Survey, each with its margin of error.
- 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.
- Cost of living Cost of living
BEA’s price level for the state against the nation, for goods, rents, utilities and other services, and its metro areas beside it.
- 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 New Mexico 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 link above is EOIR’s courts, which sit in this state. CBP’s encounters are not by state and will not be: its sectors and field offices are areas of responsibility rather than a geography, and assigning them to states would be a claim the data does not make. Immigration and the border.