How much do states spend on housing prisoners?

States in the South spend the least per inmate and have some of the highest prison incarceration rates in the nation.

Updated Oct 31, 2025by the USAFacts team

Over 1 million people were incarcerated as of December 2023, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics data. To house them, state governments spent a combined $63.6 billion.

Spending per prisoner varies more than tenfold across states, from just under $20,000 in Mississippi to $284,976 in Massachusetts, more than double that of any other state. Median state spending was $60,989 per prisoner for the year.

Per-prisoner, Massachusetts spends more than double every other state.

Corrections expenditure per imprisoned person under state jurisdiction, 2023

Six states include jail and prison populations.

How do states distribute corrections funding?

State correction departments allocate most of their budgets to day-to-day prison operations, including officer salaries. Some states also fund rehabilitation programs, drug treatment centers, and juvenile justice initiatives from their corrections budgets.

State funding doesn’t usually include jails, which hold people awaiting trial or serving sentences under one year; they’re usually operated by county and city law enforcement agencies. However, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont operate “unified” systems that integrate the prison and jail systems.

Which states pay correctional officers the most?

The national median annual salary for a correctional officer in 2023 was $53,300, 10.9% higher than the median for all occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Correctional officer pay varies by state. The highest earners were in California ($93,160), New Jersey ($87,460), and Massachusetts ($78,810). The lowest were in Mississippi ($35,040), Kentucky ($36,940), and Missouri ($38,000).

The highest wages for correctional officers were in California.

Median wages for correctional officers by state, 2023

Which states have the highest incarceration rates?

Nationwide, 460 of every 100,000 adult US residents were in prison in 2023. Of those, 405 were held under state jurisdiction and 54 under federal.

States in the Southern US had the highest imprisonment rates: Mississippi (847 people per 100,000), Louisiana (804), and Arkansas (773). Those rates were six times as high as in some New England states. Massachusetts (118) had the lowest rate of any state, followed by Maine (144), Rhode Island (150), and Vermont (150).

Prison incarceration rates were highest in Mississippi and lowest in Massachusetts.

Sentenced prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction per 100,000 adults, 2023

Data includes some variation in methodology by state. Six states include jail and prison populations.

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