In a followup to a 2017 state-by-state study of local jail populations, the Prison Policy Initiative found that little has changed after many states passed reforms aimed at reducing their jail headcounts. "We still see the same trends playing out: too many people are confined in local jails, and the reasons for their confinement do not justify the overwhelming costs of our nation’s reliance on excessive jailing," the advocacy group wrote in a new report.
The report breaks the numbers down into three categories. The largest, and fastest-growing since at least the 1990s, is people awaiting trial and either unable or ineligible for bail or pretrial release. More than 460,000 people are currently in that category, PPI found. The next two categories are similar in size, although one group — people convicted and serving time — has declined somewhat in recent years, to more than 143,000, while the other — people held for federal or state agencies — has grown to about 130,000. In 28 states and the District of Columbia, more than 10% of the jail population is being held on behalf of a state or federal authority, whose per diem payments give jailers a financial incentive to hold many in detention, the group said. The report details how widespread jailing harms already-marginalized groups of people, including low income and Black people, and people with health, mental illness or housing problems.