Incarceration serves to remove offenders from a community, but also creates hardships on families, including the loss of an income or a caregiver, in addition to long-term effects on mental health for all involved. After incarceration, people often encounter challenges in obtaining meaningful employment, leading to reductions in long-term productivity, recidivism and widespread effects on a community's social, health and educational systems.

In 2023, the incarceration rate in Arkansas was 111 per 10,000, similar to 2022 when it was 108. This makes Arkansas 40th out of 45 states with available data on this indicator. The rate for Black/African Americans in Arkansas in 2023 was 3.5 times higher than the White rate and 4 times higher than the rate for Hispanics. Males were jailed at a rate more than 5 times above that for females.

Among Arkansas counties, incarceration rates varied widely - from 11 per 10,000 in Cleveland to above 80 per 10,000 in Cross and Little River.

Disparities in incarceration are the result of racialized stereotypes, policies and practices and community conditions. Stereotypes that portray Black and Latino people, especially males, as inherently dangerous, criminal, and violent lay the foundation for police surveillance and disparate and harsher treatment by the criminal justice system. Communities of color are more likely to be under surveillance and policies such as stop and frisk perpetuate increased police contact. Punitive drug laws have had a disproportionate impact on Black and Latino communities. Even though Blacks and whites have similar rates of drug use, Black people are more likely to be arrested and experience harsher sentences. In general, whites experience less harsh sentences when convicted of similar crimes as Black and Latinos. Given economic disparities, people of color are less likely to experience pre-trial release after arrest. The concentration of Black and Latino communities in highly segregated communities with limited economic opportunities and ineffective schools may also foster crime involvement.

Rates represent people in county level and state prisons. Rates for subgroups at the state level only include the county jail population, not state prisons.

Prior to 2020, county-level jail data included a comprehensive census of jails. Starting in 2020, data came from an Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ) which uses a sampling method rather than a full census. In 2023, 14 of Arkansas' 75 counties were included in the sample.