Is There A Prison Near You?
Image: ADX ‘Supermax’, Florence,CO (Getty Images)
Here’s a hypothetical for you: While considering the worst case scenario whereby societal collapse and/or complete infrastructure failure (e.g. EMP, grid-down) leads to the escape/release of prisoners within the U.S., do you know where the prisons and prisoners are located, and are any of them near where you live?
Or how about this… Do you know which states have the highest and lowest imprisonment incarceration rates, and how this may or may not affect you depending on where you live?
I have read that there are 5,393 prison facilities in the United States – places where people are held in local and county jails, state prisons, federal corrections facilities, and detention centers.
Apparently approximately 2.3 million prisoners are being held in the U.S. at this time and approximately 4.7 million are on probation or parole. That’s nearly 7 million people under ‘correctional supervision’ – nearly 3% of adults in America (1 in 35).
Here are a few online sources to assist you while locating prisons that may be near you:
…and a chart which indicates the position of all 50 states and their relation to current imprisonment rates:
List of United States state prisons
Wikipedia
List of United States federal prisons
Wikipedia
Federal Bureau of Prisons (plus regional maps)
http://www.bop.gov/locations/index.jsp
List of United States military prisons
Wikipedia
Why am I posting this on a survival-preparedness website?
While the odds of mass prison escape / release seem very low, it may be a good idea to at least know where the closest prisons are to your location. Preparedness includes ‘knowledge’.
States with the most prisoners:
1. Texas
2. California
3. Florida
4. Georgia
5. New York
6. Ohio
7. Pennsylvania
8. Illinois
9. Michigan
10. Louisiana
States with the least prisoners:
1. North Dakota
2. Vermont
3. Maine
4. Rhode Island
5. Wyoming
6. Alaska
7. New Hampshire
8. Montana
9. Hawaii
10. South Dakota
States with the lowest imprisonment rate (per 100,000 adults)
1. Maine
2. Rhode Island
3. Massachusetts
4. Minnesota
5. North Dakota
6. New Hampshire
7. Vermont
8. New Jersey
9. Hawaii
10. Washington
States with the highest imprisonment rate (per 100,000 adults)
1. Louisiana
2. Oklahoma
3. Mississippi
4. Alabama
5. Texas
6. Arizona
7. Arkansas
8. Georgia
9. Missouri
10. Idaho
data source: U.S. Department of Justice, September 2015, NCJ 248955
There are lots of implications with this data, however do with it what you may. Understand your regional risks having to do with incarceration and prison locales so as to better understand the potential risks where you are…
