Web Report: The Changing Use of Jails in Safety and Justice Challenge Counties

The majority of people in local jails around the country are awaiting their criminal trial. This means they have not been convicted of the crimes that brought them in. Many also do not pose a danger to public safety, nor a significant risk of flight, but remain in custody because they cannot afford bail or bond—making incarceration a fact of financial ability, not of safety.

In fact, keeping those in jail who could be better served in the community can cause long-term instability. Well-established research demonstrates the harms of pretrial detention, including worse criminal legal system outcomes, disruption in employment, poorer mental and physical health, and strained social and familial relationships. Unnecessarily overcrowding jails also means those who actually do need attention—especially for risk factors such as mental health, substance use, and housing instability—aren't given the resources they need to avoid landing back in jail.

Given this research, cities and counties involved in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) have engaged in collaborative, multi-agency efforts to safely shrink their local jail populations and increase equity across the system. This includes using resources to promote fairer and more just pretrial decision-making, address the needs of system-involved people, and establish a robust array of alternative options.

These efforts have yielded impressive results: in these SJC cities and counties, nearly 18,000 fewer people are in jails today compared to the start of the initiative. This reduction was driven largely by fewer people being booked into jail. Progress has been slower on reducing racial and ethnic disparities, though in many sites there are fewer people of color in jail than there were prior to the start of the initiative. Importantly, SJC research has established that throughout nearly a decade of the initiative, people released pretrial were no more likely to return to jail than before the SJC, including for violent crime—demonstrating that data-driven and cross-agency collaborative planning efforts can lead to positive outcomes for individuals while keeping communities safe.

Looking back at 10 years of work, CUNY ISLG analyzed individual-level jail data from five participating counties to explore trends in three key indicators:

1. Who gets booked into jail;

2. How they are released from custody (e.g., money bond, pretrial supervision);

3. How long they stay.

Findings include:

1. Fewer people were booked for lower-level and administrative charges.

   Jails were being used more judiciously, with substantially fewer people booked for lower-level and/or administrative charges.

• Finding 1: Key Takeaways

  Over time, in these five SJC study sites the share of bookings involving new criminal offenses increased, as fewer people were being booked into jail for administrative reasons alone. The composition of those booked changed, too: the share of felony-related bookings increased over time (both non-violent and violent), as fewer individuals with lower-level charges were booked into jail.

  The consistency and timing of these changes in the composition of jail bookings likely reflects more judicious decision making regarding who gets booked into jail custody, with jurisdictions finding alternative ways to handle lower-level crimes and violations, such as missed court dates or failed drug tests while on community supervision.

2. More people were released while their case was pending.

Among those who were booked, a greater proportion of people were released while their court cases were pending, , as jurisdictions found ways to reduce the reliance of monetary payment to secure release for individuals where risk to community safety and absconding were low.

• Finding 2: Key Takeaways

  Each of the five sites saw an increase in the proportion of individuals released on a pretrial status—meaning that they were able to return to their communities, families, employment, schools, and local service providers while their criminal cases were pending.

  Further, in three of these five study sites there was an increase in the proportion of pretrial releases that were nonfinancial—meaning that defendants did not need to post bail or bond to return to their communities. Together, these trends help minimize the disruptions to daily life that incarceration causes and allow individuals to navigate their criminal cases while staying connected to important family and neighborhood resources.

3. People with felony bookings had shorter jail stays.

People who were booked into jail on felony charges stayed for shorter periods of time.

• Finding 3: Key Takeaways

  In all five study sites, those booked into jail with new criminal charges in 2023 spent less time, on average, in jails than those booked before SJC reforms. The same was true for those booked on felony charges in four of five sites. The ALOS of those booked for misdemeanor charges remained fairly steady over time. This may indicate that jurisdictions are having success in their efforts to implement more effective and efficient release policies and practices—all focused on maintaining community safety.

  At the same time, the proportional increase of bookings for more serious charges has led to an increase in time spent in jail for those held pretrial following SJC reforms in four of five sites. Given that the composition of jails is changing to reflect more complex charges, this trend is not surprising.

4. Racial and ethnic disparities persist.

Racial and ethnic disparities persist even as bookings decline across racial and ethnic groups, driven by longer average time spent in custody for Black people compared with white people.

• Finding 4: Key Takeaways

  Findings in this section reflect a mix of encouraging progress and persistent, deeply rooted disparities. This highlights how, even when sites explicitly commit to narrowing racial and ethnic disparities, inequities remain deeply entrenched in the system. For example, while overall bookings declined proportionally more for white individuals than Black individuals, Black individuals also had steeper increases among those booked on new criminal charges, as fewer entered the jail on administrative charges alone.

  Further, in most sites, there were steeper declines in time spent in jail for Black verses white individuals. However, Black individuals continued to have lengths of stay much higher than their white counterparts and were still more likely to be booked for felony charges.

Importantly, SJC research has established that throughout nearly a decade of the initiative, people released pretrial were no more likely to return to jail than before the SJC, including for violent crime (see Measuring Progress: Returns to the Community, 2024)—demonstrating that data-driven and cross-agency collaborative planning efforts can lead to positive outcomes for individuals while keeping communities safe.

This web report lays out what we found from the analysis of five SJC sites.