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Home | Corrections | Local jail inmates and jail facilities | Local jail facility characteristics
Local jail facility characteristics
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Complete enumerations of jail facilities, as well as data on private jails, staffing, and inmate programs, are collected in the Census of Jails, conducted periodically. Summary data from the 2006 Census of Jail Facilities are forthcoming; the most recent data available is from the Census of Jails, 1999. Basic capacity information is collected in the Annual Survey of Jails, and some jail facility characteristics are also gathered periodically within the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ). See Jail Data Collection and Surveys for more information.

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Data Collections & Surveys

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Correctional Populations in the United States, 2012 Summarizes data from various correctional collections to provide statistics on the number of offenders supervised by the adult correctional systems in the U.S. Adult correctional systems include offenders supervised in the community under the authority of probation or parole agencies and inmates held in state and federal prisons or local jails.
  Press Release | PDF (766K) | ASCII file (23K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 15K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2012 TOTAL U.S. CORRECTIONAL POPULATION DECLINED IN 2012 FOR FOURTH YEAR
  Press Release
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2012 INDIAN COUNTRY JAIL INMATE POPULATION INCREASED ABOUT SIX PERCENT FOR SECOND INDIAN COUNTRY JAIL INMATE POPULATION INCREASED ABOUT SIX PERCENT FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR
  Press Release
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2012 - Statistical Tables Presents the number of jails and jail inmates at midyear 2012. This report describes annual change in jail populations and patterns of change from 2000 through 2012.
  Press Release | PDF (1.25M) | ASCII file (28K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 17K)
Part of the Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear Series

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2012 - Statistical Tables JAIL POPULATION INCREASES AFTER THREE YEARS OF DECLINE
 
Part of the Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear Series

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2011 ONE IN 34 U.S. ADULTS UNDER CORRECTIONAL SUPERVISION IN 2011, LOWEST RATE SINCE 2000
  Press Release
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2011 - Statistical Tables WASHINGTON -- The U.S. jail inmate population declined for a third consecutive year, the Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. From June 2010 to June 2011, the jail inmate population declined 1.8 percent, dropping to 735,601 from 748,728.
  Press Release
Part of the Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear Series

Census of Jail Facilities, 2006 Presents findings from the ninth in a series of complete enumerations of local jails since 1970. The data include changes in the number of jurisdictions and facilities, functions, confined inmates, and inmate-to-staff ratios.
  PDF (823K) | ASCII file (45K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 65K)
Part of the Census of Jails Series

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2010 - Statistical Tables Presents data on numbers of jails and analyzes patterns of growth and decline in jail populations.
  Press Release | PDF (525K) | ASCII file (22K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 17K)
Part of the Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2008 Presents findings from the 2008 Survey of Jails in Indian Country, an enumeration of 82 jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  Acrobat file (PDF 316K) | ASCII file (23K) | Spreadsheet | About the source data (Other)
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

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Terms & Definitions

Custody To have custody of a prisoner, a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must physically hold that person in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the BOP may hold inmates over whom a different government maintains jurisdiction.
 
Jail inmates Offenders confined in short-term facilities that are usually administered by a local law enforcement agency and that are intended for adults but sometimes hold juveniles before or after adjudication. Jail inmates usually have a sentence of less than 1 year or are being held pending a trial, awaiting sentencing, or awaiting transfer to other facilities after a conviction.
 
Operational capacity The number of inmates that can be accommodated based on a facility's staff, existing programs, and services.
 
Rated capacity The number of beds or inmates assigned by a rating official to institutions within the jurisdiction.
 
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