Jails Report Series

The Bureau of Justice Statistics provides key jail statistics prior to release of the annual jails report. The statistics below include the number of persons held in local jails by inmate demographics and conviction status, the number of admissions to jail, and jail incarceration rates, from 2014 to 2024.

Statistics from 2024, the latest data year, are preliminary and may be updated once BJS publishes the final data in Jail Inmates in 2024 – Statistical Tables, forthcoming.   

Key findings

• At midyear 2024, local jails held 657,500 persons in custody, similar to the year before (664,200).
• Jails reported 7.9 million admissions from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. While this represents a 4% increase over the 7.6 million admissions the year before, annual admissions were 31% lower than 10 years ago (11.5 million).
• At midyear 2024, 45% of individuals incarcerated in local jails were white, 38% were black, and 15% were Hispanic. Other racial and ethnic groups, including American Indian or Alaska Native individuals, Asian individuals, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander individuals, and those identifying with two or more races, collectively comprised 2% of the total jail population.
• At midyear 2024, 69% of the jail population (450,600) was unconvicted and awaiting court action on a current charge or being held in jail for other reasons. The remaining 31% (206,900) were convicted and either serving a sentence or awaiting sentencing on a conviction.