Fact Sheet California’s County Jails By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin, Andrew Skelton Jan 8, 2024 The statewide jail population is significantly lower than it was before the pandemic. The population is largely male and being held for felonies.
Report California’s County Jails in the Era of Reform By Sonya Tafoya, Mia Bird, Ryken Grattet, Viet Nguyen Sep 26, 2016 California’s county jails have been profoundly affected by several reforms over the last decade. Most importantly, in 2011, public safety realignment shifted responsibility for large numbers of non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual offenders from state prisons to county correctional systems. This lowered the state prison population—allowing prisons to prioritize beds for more serious offenders—but increased county jail populations. Three years later, Proposition 47 downgraded a range of drug and property offenses from potential felonies to misdemeanors. The reduced population pressure has allowed jails to prioritize beds for more serious drug and property offenders who are no longer eligible for prison. Despite the growing importance of jails, little is known about the basic characteristics of jail populations. In this report, we analyze state and local data on individuals moving through county correctional systems. Using data from 11 counties, we find that: Reforms altered the offender composition of the jail population, especially among those held on drug and property crimes. After three years under realignment, the number of drug and property offenders in jails increased by 55 percent and 40 percent, respectively. One year after the passage of Proposition 47, the number of drug and property offenders fell by 35 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Length of stay for felony drug and property offenders increased after realignment. For example, median time served for felony drug offenders released in October 2011 was 45 days, compared to 98 days for those released in October 2015. However, length of stay for people who served time for misdemeanors and felony crimes against persons has remained stable. Releases due to overcapacity rose under realignment and dropped after Proposition 47, when jail population pressure eased. The demographic composition of jails has largely remained stable. But the age distribution does show modest signs of change: the share of those ages 18–21 in jail has decreased slightly, as the share of those in their 30s has increased. As jail populations shift toward more serious drug and property offenders, counties and the state will need to consider how jail security and rehabilitative programs might be made more effective. While researchers and policymakers continue to examine the longer-term effects of realignment and Proposition 47, it is also important to keep in mind that the recent reprioritization of jail beds may have implications for crime and recidivism.
blog post County Jails House Fewer Inmates, but Over Half Face Mental Health Issues By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin Oct 25, 2023 While the number of people in California's county jails has declined markedly over the last decade, the share of inmates with mental health needs has grown to more than half of the total jail population.
Report Expanding Health Coverage in California: County Jails as Enrollment Sites By Shannon McConville, Mia Bird May 10, 2016 In 2014, the first year of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation, the number of Californians with health insurance increased substantially. However, millions of state residents continue to lack comprehensive health coverage, and those who remain uninsured are likely more difficult to enroll through traditional strategies. In this report, we find that uninsured rates are highest for young men and for those with low levels of education, income, and employment. The prevalence of these same characteristics among correctional populations suggests that the justice system—and, in particular, county jails—may offer points of contact for many uninsured individuals who would otherwise be hard to reach. Outreach and enrollment efforts aimed at local jail populations are set within the policy context of California’s 2011 Public Safety Realignment, which created incentives and resources for local corrections agencies to improve reentry outcomes. With expansions in access to health insurance coverage under the ACA, nearly all counties are establishing programs to provide enrollment assistance to jail inmates as part of a more comprehensive reentry strategy. But resources and capacity are limited, so it is important to identify effective models to maximize the potential of county correctional systems as sites of insurance enrollment.
Fact Sheet Arrests in California’s Counties By Magnus Lofstrom, Justin Goss, Joseph Hayes, Brandon Martin Mar 28, 2019 Arrests vary substantially across the state, with rural counties often seeing higher arrest rates than urban counties. This fact sheet provides a snapshot of overall arrest rates, arrests for different offenses, and racial disparities in California’s diverse counties.
blog post Falling Jail Populations Have Eased Overcrowding in Most County Jails By Brandon Martin, Magnus Lofstrom Feb 15, 2024 California jails have historically faced capacity issues that required counties to release people early. However, a close look at jail populations in the wake of the pandemic shows that overcrowding is now an issue in just a handful of counties.
interactive California’s County Jails Sep 6, 2013 These interactive maps illustrate data from before and after corrections realignment. They show monthly averages in areas such as the average daily population (ADP), the percent of unsentenced inmates, the percent of felony inmates, and the relation of ADP to the number of beds available, or "rated capacity.”
blog post California’s Jail Population Has Plummeted during COVID-19 By Joseph Hayes, Heather Harris May 8, 2020 All counties have released more people from jail than they’ve admitted, but population decreases vary widely across counties.
Report Key Factors in California’s Jail Construction Needs By Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin May 7, 2014 Now that California has shifted responsibility for many criminal offenders to the counties, county jail systems face greater capacity challenges. This report highlights two important factors in addressing jail capacity constraints: aging jail facilities and long-term needs. We show that a number of facilities are old and likely in need of costly updates or replacement and that growth in the state’s population is likely to exert significant pressure on the county jail system. Our analysis suggests that a thoughtful combination of further jail construction and decreased reliance on incarceration is needed, given the magnitude of the current and future jail needs.
Report Impact of Realignment on County Jail Populations By Steven Raphael, Magnus Lofstrom Jun 20, 2013 Has California’s historic public safety realignment shifted the problem of overcrowding from state prisons to county jails? This report finds that the shift of most lower-level offenders to the counties has increased the statewide county jail population but decreased the overall incarceration rate. The authors also examine county-level factors outside the direct impact of realignment that help explain variations in jail population growth. This research was supported with funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation.
