New national data help fill 20-year data gap: Offense data for people in local jails

Our analysis of Jail Data Initiative data offers the first detailed, national view of the criminal charges for which people are jailed since the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2002 survey. We look at the one-day jail population as well as bookings over a full year.

by Emily Widra

Millions of people are arrested and booked into jail every year, but existing national data offer very little information about the actual criminal charges for which they are detained. In fact, the most recent national offense data published by the government about people in jail is from 2002, so we worked with the Jail Data Initiative to fill that gap using the best, up-to-date nationally representative sample available. We now have a new “snapshot” of people in jail, by offense, on a given day; new insights about how low-level offenses like misdemeanors and supervision violations impact “jail churn” over the course of a year; and we were able to analyze some variation in offenses by sex and, for the first time, by region and jail jurisdiction size.

Our unique, representative sample of jail records

The Jail Data Initiative (JDI) collects online jail rosters that are updated at least daily, and JDI excludes any jail rosters that are updated less frequently (e.g., only weekly). The dataset includes individual-level jail data for approximately 1,300 local jails across the country, representing over one-third of all jails in the country. The contents of jail rosters vary between jurisdictions: that is, some jails publish more information than others, including demographics or detailed charge data. For the purposes of our analysis, we only included jail rosters that published the relevant information on charges, reducing the sample to a subset of 865 jail rosters. While we are not able to break out data on people held pretrial versus those serving short sentences in jail using this data source, we do know that most people in jail are held pretrial: in 2023, 70% of the national jail population was unconvicted. While our analysis is based on the total number of people in the sample of jails, regardless of their conviction status, the findings are likely most reflective of the unconvicted or pretrial population, because it is so much larger than the convicted population in jails.

There were more than 7.6 million jail admissions in 2023, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. While the Bureau reports the total number of admissions, they do not break down this admission data by offense or severity level. In the JDI database, 144 jail rosters had information on jail admissions by charge severity (misdemeanor versus felony) for over 400,000 bookings from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. In addition, the JDI database included 521 jail rosters with information regarding probation and parole violations, accounting for more than 1.3 million bookings in calendar year 2023. To create national estimates, we applied the findings from our analyses of these subsamples to the 7.6 million jail admissions in the country in 2023.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics last collected specific charge data for jail populations in their 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails. Given that this is the most recent national jail offense data and it is over 20 years old, the JDI dataset offers a rare opportunity to analyze the charges that people are booked under nationwide. Of course, the difference in data sources makes a fully apples-to-apples comparison of the 2002 data and the more recent JDI data impossible.> The data provided in the Bureau of Justice Statistics survey reflects self-reported information from people detained in a sample of local jails on a single day in June 2002, while the JDI data is based on the administrative data at the time of booking on a single day in February 2024. Nevertheless, the Jail Data Initiative offers us a unique opportunity to evaluate the overall trends and changes in jail incarceration since 2002.

One-third of annual jail admissions are for misdemeanor charges

The “massive misdemeanor system” in the U.S. is an important but overlooked contributor to overcriminalization and mass incarceration. An estimated 13 million misdemeanor charges — for behaviors as benign as jaywalking or sitting on a sidewalk — sweep droves of Americans into the criminal legal system each year (and that excludes civil violations and traffic offenses, like speeding).

The Jail Data Initiative data reveal that misdemeanor charges accounted for more than 2.7 million jail admissions (35%) in 2023. This is a much higher percentage than the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ snapshot of the jail population on a single day in 2023 shows: the Bureau reports that only 20% of people in jail were held for misdemeanor offenses. The difference is explained by “length of stay” or how long people are held in jail for different kinds of offenses. People charged with felony offenses show up disproportionately in single-day snapshots because they spend more time in jail than those facing misdemeanor charges. Longer jail stays associated with felony charges are due in part to higher bail amounts for felony offenses. Because of these differences, single-day snapshots make it easier to overlook just how many people are jailed for low-level, misdemeanor offenses each year.

Misdemeanor charges may sound trivial, but they carry serious financial, personal, and social costs, especially for the accused but also for broader society, which finances the processing of these court cases and all of the unnecessary incarceration that comes with them. Pretrial detention actually makes people charged with misdemeanors more likely to plead guilty, to be sentenced to incarceration, and to receive longer jail sentences. Rather than investing in community-driven safety initiatives, cities and counties are still pouring vast amounts of public resources into the processing and punishment of these minor offenses.

Many people are jailed for “technical violations” of community supervision, not new criminal charges

Probation and parole are often seen as a “lenient” punishment or as an ideal “alternative” to incarceration. But while remaining in the community is generally preferable to being locked up, the conditions imposed on those under supervision are often so restrictive that they set people up to fail. “Technical violations” are behaviors that break these probation or parole rules, such as missing curfew, failing a drug test, or missing a check-in meeting; they are not behaviors that would count as “crimes” for someone not under community supervision. However, when people who are under community supervision are charged with a new crime, that also constitutes a violation of their probation or parole, and typically must be reported. Individuals can often be kept in jail without bail for either type of violation on a probation or parole detainer.

In 2023, there were about 7.6 million jail bookings, and the new Jail Data Initiative data indicate that almost 926,000 of those bookings (12% or 1 in 8) involved an alleged probation or parole violation. Almost a half million (484,000) people jailed in 2023 were jailed only for technical violations of community supervision and faced no additional criminal charges. We did not find much variation between men and women related to bookings for violations; 11% of women and 13% of men were booked into jail with probation or parole violations and about 7% of both women and men booked into jail were jailed for only technical violations.

Looking at a single-day snapshot, we see that about 19% of people in jail on a single day in June 2024 had probation or parole violations. This is comparable to what the Bureau of Justice Statistics found in 2023.< Our single-day snapshot also showed that women were more likely to be stuck in jail for a technical violation: 9% of women in jail had been admitted with only a charge of a violation, compared to 6% of men. To square this with the findings of only minimal sex differences in the year-long booking data, recall that “length of stay” impacts who is likely to be sitting in jail on a given day. Since women held on unaffordable bail typically have very low incomes, it’s plausible that women spend more time in jail for violations because they are less able to afford the bail money, when they are eligible for bail at all.

The first detailed national jail offense data published in two decades

Given that the most recent jail offense data is over 20 years old, the Jail Data Initiative dataset offers a rare opportunity to analyze the charges that people are booked under today. Our partners at JDI standardized the listed charges into both broad offense types (violent, property, public order, drug, DUI offense, and criminal traffic) and more specific charge types like aggravated assault, burglary, liquor law violations, drug possession, driving while intoxicated, and minor traffic offenses. Additionally, unlike the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2002 data, the JDI dataset allows us to look at all the charges individuals are booked under, in addition to the “top” — or most serious — charge for each person.

People frequently face multiple charges when they are booked into jail

People booked into jail often face more than just one criminal charge: in our sample, there were an average of four separate charges per person. When we look at all charges for each booking rather than “top” (most serious) charges, we find that the most frequently-used charges are often not the same as the most common top charges. People in jail often face “stacked” charges, where additional charges are added on to the most severe charge. Nine of the top 10 most common charges are relatively low-level offenses that don’t involve physical violence, including failure to appear in court, forgery or fraud, contempt of court, and drug offenses (the only serious violent offense in the top 10 most common charges is aggravated assault).

In addition, some charges are more likely to be levied “in bulk” (e.g., people will often be detained on many counts of forgery/fraud) and this may also explain why we see charges like forgery/fraud in the top 10 most common charges. Regardless of the severity of the charges, people facing more charges face higher bail amounts, are more likely to be jailed for longer periods of time, and are more likely to be convicted.

Offense data by most serious charge per person: Most people are jailed for non-violent offenses

Looking at just the “top,” or most serious, charge facing each person in jail on a given day in 2024, we find that almost two-thirds (about 415,000) are facing a top charge that is not considered a violent offense. About 23% of people are jailed for a most serious charge that is a public order offense, 21% for a property offense, 14% for a drug offense, and 4% for a driving under the influence (DUI) or criminal traffic offense.

The number of people in jail for charges that reflect little-to-no risk to public safety is alarming: 8% of people were in jail with a top charge of a supervision violation, 7% for drug possession, 5% for offenses against courts, legislatures, and commissions, and 3% for contempt of court — these four kinds of charges alone account for almost a quarter of the total jail population. Probation and parole violations are the second-most common top charge, following aggravated assault. We’ve long argued that noncriminal behaviors (like missed check-ins or nonpayment of fees) should not lead to incarceration — this strips people on community supervision of any progress they’ve made, further destabilizes them and their families, and is a thoughtless waste of public funds. Each state approaches supervision violations differently, but some rely on incarceration as a response more than others. For example, 2019 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show:

• Tennessee’s jails hold 9,280 people for an alleged violation of supervision, accounting for 30% of the total jail population;
• In both Georgia and West Virginia, over 15,000 people — 28% of the jail population — are behind bars for supervision violations;
• An alarming 39% of the jail population in Ohio is composed of people accused of violating the rules of their supervision.

Probation and parole officials can use more effective alternative sanctions and approaches, such as incentive-based systems, but clearly too many continue to default to a “lock ‘em up” response.

Three in four women in jail are facing non-violent charges

More than 90,000 women are locked up in local jails on any given day in the U.S., representing about one-seventh of the entire jail population (14%). The new data from the Jail Data Initiative reveal that three-quarters (75%) of these women have non-violent top charges: 28% public order, 25% violent, 25% property, 19% drug, 2% DUI, and 2% criminal traffic. Further, a smaller share of jailed women (25%) than jailed men (38%) are facing a top charge that is considered violent. Compared to the 2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics data, public order and violent charges account for a larger portion of the top charges women face in 2024, while a smaller portion of women in jail are facing drug charges (-10 percentage points) and property charges (-7 percentage points).

Over a three-year period from 2020-2023, the number of women jailed at midyear increased 36%, compared to 19% for men. Women are disproportionately locked up in local jails, because they are less likely to be able to afford money bail required for pretrial release, and if convicted, they are more likely to serve a shorter sentence for a property or drug offense in jail than go to prison. While there, women in jail experience bleak conditions like expensive phone calls, a lack of programming and education opportunities, and poor quality healthcare.

In addition, the jailing of women has a devastating “ripple effect” on families and communities: at least 80% of women booked into jail are mothers, including over 55,000 women who are pregnant when they are admitted. Beyond having to leave their children in someone else’s care, these women are impacted by the brutal side effects of going to jail: aggravation of mental health problems, a greater risk of suicide, and a much higher likelihood of ending up unhoused or deprived of essential support and benefits.

Regional variations in criminal charge distributions reflect differing priorities across states

Breaking down the data by region (i.e., Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) allows us to assess how different parts of the country use jails. For example, previous research shows that jails in the Midwest and West have the highest percentages of people detained pretrial, while jails in the South have the highest percentages of people being held in jails for state, federal, and tribal authorities (20%).

We find that regionally, jurisdictions respond to certain types of offenses differently. For example, only 8% of people in jails in the Northeast are held for a top charge related to drugs, but in the South, 16% of people are held for drug charges, suggesting that a significant regional difference in the criminalization of drug use influences who is locked up. In addition, the Northeast is the only region to have weapons offenses and rape among the most common top charges, while the West is the only region with DUIs among the most common top charges. It’s important to note that these variations don’t necessarily reflect differences in actual crime rates across regions, but rather the kinds of charges law enforcement and courts in those areas deem appropriate for jail detention.

Drug possession is among the top 10 most common top charges for all regions except the Northeast. It’s worth noting that drug and drug paraphernalia possession offenses have been reduced to misdemeanors only — or decriminalized in part or in full — in a larger portion of Northeastern states than in any other region. Half of the Northeastern states have decriminalized drug paraphernalia, and in the remaining half of Northeastern states, possession of drug paraphernalia is limited to a misdemeanor. Only three Northeastern states (33%) classify drug possession as a felony offense, while other regions more commonly classify drug possession as a felony offense (83% of states in the Midwest, 69% in the South, and 46% in the West).

Laws and policies are largely set at the state level, so further investigation of state-level differences in charge distributions would help policymakers understand how their decisions impact jail populations, in places where the data are available. (In the sample used in this analysis, state-level comparisons were not possible.)

Smaller jails disproportionately incarcerate people for low-level offenses

Differences between jails in larger and smaller counties have grown more pronounced in recent years: as jail incarceration in large, urban counties has decreased in a number of jurisdictions, jail incarceration has exploded in smaller jurisdictions — including rural counties and those with small towns and cities. While the Jail Data Initiative data are not broken down by rural vs. urban areas, we used jail size as a proxy measure to explore the differences in the charges smaller vs. larger jurisdictions are using their jails for.

We find that smaller jails — typically in jurisdictions with smaller overall populations — tend to have a larger portion of people incarcerated for public order and drug offenses, while larger jails hold people primarily for violent offenses. While we can’t identify the causes behind these differences from this dataset, this difference is likely explained — in part — by higher rates of violent crime in metropolitan areas. Jails in these more populous jurisdictions are more likely to use their available beds for these more serious offenses, while smaller jurisdictions may have more space available to fill with people accused of low-level offenses. For example, charges of rape and armed robbery only appear in the ten most common top charges in jails holding 1,000 or more people (the largest jails). In the smallest jails that hold 250 people or less, 9% of people jailed are held for supervision violations, compared to 5% in jails holding 1,000 or more. Similarly, 8% of people in those smaller jails are held for “offenses against the court,” compared to 3% in the largest jails.

Conclusion

The importance of local jails to the full picture of mass incarceration cannot be overstated. Jails hold one-third of all people locked up in the U.S., most of them not convicted of the charges they are facing and detained because they cannot afford bail. Pretrial detention is the primary driver of jail population growth: over the last twenty years, the number of unconvicted people in jail increased by 34%. Our findings come amidst a trend of small, less-populous counties (along with some larger urban counties) continuing to build new and bigger jails. This analysis shows that these costly projects, far from being a public safety necessity, are likely to exacerbate the jailing of poor people for minor offenses—while taking away resources from investments that make communities safer, such as affordable housing and healthcare.

Our analysis highlighting trends in jail detention across the country would not be possible without the data collected by the Jail Data Initiative. JDI offers one of the only alternative sources of information about why hundreds of thousands of people are behind bars, given that the Bureau of Justice Statistics has not released updated offense information for jail populations nationwide in over twenty years. This invaluable data source enables even more comprehensive analysis by capturing and standardizing individual-level booking data from hundreds of jurisdictions, offering a unique view of the flow of people through local jails over time, in addition to a detailed, updated “snapshot” view.

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For more information, including 11 appendix data tables, detailed footnotes, our methodology, and more, see the full version of this briefing on our website.