United States · New Jersey · Newark
Northern State Prison
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Northern State Prison
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Northern State Prison is a state prison located in Essex County, New Jersey. Rated capacity: 1,530. Reported population: 2,378. Security level: Medium. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.
Background
Northern State Prison is a state-run prison located at 168 Frontage Road in Newark, New Jersey, for male offenders. It is operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. Northern State Prison offers community service activities to all minimum security inmates. The prison also houses the Security Threat Group Management Unit, which provides treatment to inmates affiliated with gangs that threaten the security of the institution. As of August 1, 2006, Northern State Prison housed 2,615 inmates.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
1,530
Current population
2,378
Occupancy
155%
Year opened
1987
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
1987
Region
New Jersey
Security level
Medium
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
No major issues documented in our database.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 22/30
- Oversight reports
- 0/30
- Structural flags
- 0/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · Severely overcrowded at 155% of capacity
This facility scores 22. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 20 points above national average.
Related facilities
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
- Wasco State Prison (Wsp)WascoMediumState prison172% occupancy
- Iowa Medical & Classification CenterCoralvilleMediumState prison153% occupancy
- Correctional Training Facility (Ctf)SoledadMediumState prison150% occupancy
- North Kern State Prison (Nksp)DelanoMediumState prison167% occupancy
- Valley State Prison (Vsp)ChowchillaMediumState prison180% occupancy
- Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (Cvsp)BlytheMediumState prison162% occupancy
Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersData completeness
74%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries
- HIFLD dataset query
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries — US Department of Homeland Security â HIFLD Open Data
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q7058992)
- Wikipedia
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Northern State Prison. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/northern-state-prison
"Northern State Prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/northern-state-prison.
@misc{worldprisons-northern-state-prison,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Northern State Prison},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/northern-state-prison},
urldate = {2026-10-20}
}