Legal Commentary

Local Jail Population Drops For First Time in 28 Years

By Jeralyn

For the first time since 1982, the inmate population at local jails across the country has declined.

The government says the number of inmates in county and city jails was more than 767,600 at the end of June 2009. That's down by nearly 18,000 inmates from a year earlier.

The top six local incarcerators in 2008 and 2009: LA, NYC, Houston, Chicago, Philly and Phoenix:

Los Angeles County Calif. 19,533/ 19,869
New York City N.Y. 13,804/ 13,130
Harris County Texas 10,063 /11,360
Cook County Ill. 9,984/ 9,737
Philadelphia City Pa. 8,824/ 9,436
Maricopa County Ariz. 9,536/ 8,745

The lowest: Denver and El Paso, TX. El Paso shows not every border town is a hotbed of crime. It's one of the safest cities in the country.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).