Jails Report Series: Preliminary Data Release (2023)

• NCJ Number: 309039
• Author(s): Zhen Zeng
• Date Published: June 2024
• Corporate Author: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
• Publication Format: Document (Online); Web Page/Site
• Publication Type: Statistics; Publication
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Part of the BJS Preliminary Data Release and Jail Inmates publication series.

Abstract

This web-only report provides preliminary statistics on key items from the annual jail data collection. Statistics include the number of inmates held in local jails, by inmate demographics and conviction status; the number of admissions to jail; and jail incarceration rates, between 2013 and 2023. Final statistics will be published in the forthcoming report, Jail Inmates in 2023 – Statistical Tables.

Highlights:

• At midyear 2023, local jails held 664,200 persons in custody, similar to the year before (663,100).
• Jails reported 7.6 million admissions from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023. While this represents a 4% increase over the 7.3 million admissions the year before, annual admissions were 35% lower than 10 years ago (11.7 million).
• Local jails held 95,100 females at midyear 2023, accounting for 14% of the confined population.
• At midyear 2023, 70% of the jail population (467,600) was unconvicted and awaiting court action on a current charge or being held in jail for other reasons. The remaining 30% (196,600) was convicted and either serving a sentence or awaiting sentencing on a conviction.