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News from Jail: Fewer inmates at largest facilities

Several jail related items caught my eye recently, beginning with this Austin Chronicle story from Jordan Smith published yesterday reporting that:Travis County has seen a dramatic drop in its jail population, following a national trend showing local jail populations dropping over the last year for the first time in more than a decade, according to stats released last week by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. Overall, the BJS reports, the local jail population nationwide was down 2.3%, for a total of 767,620 inmates held as of midyear 2009. Since 2000, the jail population has increased by about 3% each year. From mid-2007 to 2009, Austin's local jail population declined a whopping 16.7%. As of last summer, the average daily jail population was down to 2,459 inmates, and the county's jail occupancy rate declined to 82% last year ? no small feat for a county jail system that has struggled in the past with overcrowding...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 10, 2010 (boomark / email).