Jail Crowding - Overview

Jail is one of the most expensive investments made by local government. Intended to protect the community from dangerous individuals and/or punish those sentenced for minor crimes, the inappropriate use of jail space frequently results in the detention of more individuals than the facility was designed or staffed to house.

This often leads to unnecessary danger to the staff as well as unsafe conditions of confinement. A common remedy has been litigation against those responsible, often resulting in the release of detainees and expensive jail expansion projects.

The population of any jail is driven by two factors: the number of admissions and length of stay. These, in part, are driven by a number of other factors that are beyond the control of local justice system officials, such as changes in demographics of the general population that might lead to more crime and more arrests, and changes in laws that limit official discretion (i.e., mandatory minimum sentencing laws). But the number of admissions and length of stay are also driven by actions of system officials.

Following are some examples of actions that can be taken to reduce admissions and length of stay:

• Expanded use of citation release by law enforcement agencies;
• Earlier screening of cases by prosecutors to filter out weak or unnecessary cases;
• Earlier appointment of defense counsel to advocate for earlier pretrial release;
• Expediting the processing of cases, particularly for those cases involving defendants who are detained;
• Enhancing the pretrial services program to provide more, and more effective, options.

Such actions are most effective when taken together as part of a systemwide approach. For a complete discussion of such an approach, download the document “A Second Look at Alleviating Jail Crowding: A Systems Perspective.”