U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics December 2011, NCJ 230188 2007 National Census of State Court Prosecutors Census of Jail Facilities, 2006 James Stephan, BJS Statistician Georgette Walsh, BJS Technical Writer-Editor --------------------------------------------------- This file is text without graphics and many of the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report in spreadsheet format (.cvs) and the full report including tables and graphs in .pdf format are available at: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2205 This reports is one in series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all reports in the series go to http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbse&sid=66 --------------------------------------------------- Introduction 2 Jail Jurisdictions and Facilities 4 Jail Functions 6 Sex of inmates authorized to house 8 Contract or Publicly Operated Jail Jurisdictions. 10 Judicial Sanctions 12 Size of Jurisdiction 14 Jail Population 16 Rate of Confinement 20 Jail Staff 22 Inmate-to-Staff Ratio 24 Methodology 26 Introduction The 2006 Census of Jail Facilities was the ninth in a series of complete enumerations since 1970 collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Through the census, BJS collects jurisdiction and facility-level data on jails in the United States. The data include the number of jurisdictions and facilities, functions, confined inmates, and inmate-to-staff ratios. The data also show the number of jurisdictions by size, incarceration rates, judicial sanctions, jail staff, and the number operated publicly or under contract to county or city governments. Findings from the 2006 census are included in this report together with comparisons from the 1999 Census of Jail Facilities. Additional findings for 1999 are available in Census of Jails, 1999 (BJS Web. 1 Sept. 2001). HIGHLIGHTS * A total of 3,283 jail facilities, including jails in the federal system, were operating in 2006, down 93 from 3,376 in 1999. * The number of jail jurisdictions in the U.S. decreased from 3,000 in 1999 to 2,860 in 2006. * Hospitalization or medical treatment confinement was a function of 421 local jail facilities. * Private and public entities under contract to local governments operated 37 jail facilities in 2006, down from 47 in 1999. * About 7% of jail jurisdictions were under court order or consent decree to limit the size of the inmate population in 2006, down from about 11% in 1999. * As the number of confined jail inmates increased faster than the number of jail staff, the number of confined inmates per employee rose from 2.9 in 1999 to 3.3 in 2006. Jail Organization Jails in the United States operate under the authority of local or federal government. Entities such as cities, counties, and towns operate jails under local government authority, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons operates jails under federal government authority. In this report government authorities are collectively referred to as jail jurisdictions, indicating a legal status which typically corresponds to, but is not the same as a geographic/political jurisdiction. In recent years authorities governing local political/geographic jurisdictions have discovered the financial benefits and economies of scale associated with operating regional jails and have consolidated their jail detention operations with neighboring jail jurisdictions. Some authorities have continued to use the physical plants of their former jail jurisdictions for policing and short-term detention. These functions are out-of-scope for the jail censuses and are excluded from the counts. As the result of consolidations and the development of regional jails, the nationwide trend has been toward fewer jail jurisdictions and jail facilities, even as the local jail population has increased. The number of local political/geographic jurisdictions has been unaffected by these changes. In earlier BJS jail census reports, jail reporting units were called jail jurisdictions, and jail jurisdictions were not identified. Jail facilities are confinement facilities, which are usually administered by a local law enforcement agency. These facilities are intended for adults, but sometimes hold juveniles before or after adjudication. Jail facilities perform numerous functions, including receiving individuals pending arraignment and holding individuals who are awaiting trial, conviction, or sentencing. Some jail facilities operate community-based programs as alternatives to incarceration. In most localities, a city or county government operates a single jail facility. In these jurisdictions, the jail jurisdiction and the jail facility are one in the same. In some urban areas, however, jail jurisdictions operate two, three, four, or more jail facilities and designate one or more jail reporting units to respond to data queries. Contract facilities, such as private jails, are generally designated as separate reporting units within a jail jurisdiction. Jail Jurisdictions and Facilities Decline in the number of jails The growing use of regional jails and the consolidation of jail operations in rural areas contributed to the decline in the number of jails between 1999 and 2006. As towns and counties pooled their resources to create upgraded regional facilities, the number of regional jails increased from 42 in 14 states at the time of the 1999 Jail Census to at least 63 in 17 states in 2006. (See Methodology.) The number of jail jurisdictions and the number of jail facilities decreased, while the confined jail population increased between 1999 and 2006. The number of jail jurisdictions in the United States declined by 140, from 3,000 to 2,860 between 1999 and 2006 (table 1). A total of 3,283 jail facilities, including those in the federal system, were operating in 2006, down 3% from 1999. The number of confined jail inmates rose by 23% between 1999 and 2006 to reach 762,003 inmates. Local jails held about 98% of all confined jail inmates in 1999 and 2006, while the federal jurisdiction held less than 2% in both years. In 2006, 261 jail inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents were confined in the nation's jails, an increase of 29 jail inmates per 100,000 residents since 1999. The inmate-to-staff ratio also increased from 2.9 to 3.3 inmates per employee during this period. The number of jail jurisdictions declined by 5%, and the number of jail facilities decreased by 3% between 1999 and 2006. * Thirty-one states had decreases in the number of jail jurisdictions between 1999 and 2006 (table 2). * West Virginia (down 17), Georgia (down 13), Alabama (down 14), and Texas (down 11) accounted for more than a third (39%) of the decline in the number of jail jurisdictions between 1999 and 2006. * The number of jail jurisdictions in each state either declined or remained the same between 1999 and 2006. No state had an increase in the number of jail jurisdictions during this period. Jurisdictions in 21 states operated 93 fewer jails in 2006 than in 1999, accounting for the entire decline in the number of jail facilities during this period. * Decreases in the number of jails in West Virginia (down 16), California (down 15), and Alabama (down 14) made up nearly half (48%) of the decline in the number of facilities between 1999 and 2006. * Fifteen states and the District of Columbia had increases in the number of jail facilities between 1999 and 2006. Facilities in Louisiana (up 8), the District of Columbia (up 5), and Wisconsin (up 4) accounted for nearly half of the 35 additional facilities reported in the 2006 census. * Jails in the federal jurisdiction increased from 11 to 12 between 1999 and 2006. Jail Functions General population confinement and return to custody confinement were the most common jail functions. General population confinement was the predominant jail function provided by 97% of local jail facilities in 2006, followed by returned to custody (table 3). Nearly two-thirds (65%) of all reporting jurisdictions in 2006 provided the return to custody function, which involves holding probationers and parolees who have been returned to jail for technical violations or new charges. Nearly half (46%) of all jails provided work release or prerelease programs, and about a quarter performed reception, diagnosis, or classification functions. Approximately 12% had a youthful offender confinement function, 10% had a drug or alcohol treatment, and about 1% had a boot camp function. The proportion of jails offering work release or prerelease, hospitalization or medical treatment, and alcohol or drug treatment functions varied by state. * North Dakota (91%), Minnesota (85%), and Pennsylvania (83%) had the largest percentages of jails with work release or prerelease functions (table 4). Montana (15%), New York (11%), and Alaska (0%) had the smallest percentages of jails that provided this function. * Jails in Mississippi (44%), New Jersey (36%), and Massachusetts (32%) reported the highest percentages with hospitalization or medical treatment functions; Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia reported none. * Massachusetts (45%), Kentucky (37%), and New Jersey (36%) had the largest percentages of jails that offered alcohol or drug treatment functions; Alaska, West Virginia, and Wisconsin reported none. Sex of inmate authorized to house More than 4 in 5 jails were authorized to house both male and female inmates. Approximately 86% of the nation's jails were authorized to house both male and female inmates in 2006 (table 5). About 13% (425) of all jails housed men only and about 1% (32) of the nation's jails housed women only. * All local jails in Nevada, West Virginia, and Wyoming and the 15 locally operated facilities in Alaska were authorized to house both sexes. * Louisiana (43%) and Massachusetts (41%) had the largest proportions of jails that housed men only. * The 32 jails for women only were located in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Jurisdictions with the largest proportions of jails for women only were the District of Columbia (17%), California (6%), and Massachusetts and Louisiana (5% each). Contract or Publicly Operated Jail Jurisdictions Public authorities operated nearly all jail facilities in 2006. City, county, and federal correctional authorities operated approximately 99% of all jail facilities in 2006. The remaining 1% was operated under contract by private or public entities authorized by city or county governments (table 6). The number of contract-operated jail facilities declined from 47 in 1999 to 37 in 2006. Texas had the largest number of contract-operated jails in 2006. * Seven states accounted for most of the contract jail operations in 2006: Texas (8), California (5), Pennsylvania (4), and Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, and Tennessee (3 each). * Between 1999 and 2006, the number of contract jail facilities increased in Alabama and Missouri; decreased in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Washington; and was unchanged in the remaining states. Judicial Sanctions About 9% of all local jail jurisdictions had one or more jail facilities under court order or consent decree in 2006. On March 31, 2006, a total of 254 jail jurisdictions were under one or more court orders or consent decrees either to limit population or for specific conditions of confinement (table 7). About 7% (204) of all jurisdictions were under judicial sanction to limit population, and about 6% (165) were under court order for specific conditions. Specific conditions included crowding, medical facilities, procedures and policies, programming, inmate classification, exercise, staffing, food service, religious practices, and other issues. About 1 in 17 (6%) of jail jurisdictions reported one or more facilities under judicial sanction for specific conditions of confinement in 2006. * California had the largest percentage of jail jurisdictions ordered to limit population (28%), followed by Massachusetts (23%), Louisiana (22%), and Mississippi and Oregon (19% each). * California (34%) and Massachusetts (23%) also reported the highest percentages of jurisdictions under court order for special conditions, followed by Oregon (16%), and Kentucky and Mississippi (12% each). * No jail jurisdictions in Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, the District of Columbia, and the federal jurisdiction reported that any of their jails were under judicial sanctions at the time of the census. Size of Jurisdiction Nearly 40% of all jail jurisdictions held fewer than 50 inmates. Most jail jurisdictions were small with nearly 40% holding fewer than 50 inmates in 2006 (table 8). On the date of the census, nearly three-fifths (59%) of all jail jurisdictions held 99 or fewer inmates, about 20% held 100 to 249 inmates, and 10% held 250 to 499 jail inmates. Jurisdictions holding 500 to 999 inmates accounted for about 6% of all jurisdictions, and those housing 1,000 or more confined inmates accounted for 5%. * Two-thirds or more of all jail jurisdictions had fewer than 50 inmates in Iowa (82%), Nebraska (81%), Montana (80%), South Dakota (79%), North Dakota (68%), Idaho (66%), and Kansas (67%). All 15 independently operated local jail jurisdictions in Alaska also held fewer than 50 inmates. * While 43 states had jail jurisdictions that held fewer than 50 inmates, 5 states accounted for 35% of all jurisdictions in this size category: Texas (112), Iowa (76), Alabama (74), Missouri (72), and Kansas (63). * Maryland and New Jersey had no jail jurisdictions holding fewer than 50 inmates in 2006. * Each of the 15 locally operated jails in Alaska held fewer than 50 inmates. Alaska housed most jail detainees in a combined jail-prison system. (See Methodology for discussion of incarcerated populations in combined jail/prison states.) * Jurisdictions in Florida and California (20 each) accounted for about a quarter (27%) of all jurisdictions housing 1,000 or more inmates. * New York and California each had one jail jurisdiction that held 10,000 inmates or more at the time of the census (not shown in table). Jail Population The number of confined jail inmates rose 23% between 1999 and 2006. The nation's local and federal jails held a total of 762,003 confined inmates on March 31, 2006, up 23% from 617,152 on June 30, 1999 (table 9). Nearly all states and the federal jurisdiction had increases in the number of confined jail inmates during this period. Jail inmates confined in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and New York accounted for 41% of all inmates held in local jurisdictions in 1999. California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and New York held 37% of all inmates confined in local jail jurisdictions in 2006. Pennsylvania had a larger combined jail population (35,948) than New York (32,324) in 2006. The size of the jail population declined in two states between 1999 and 2006. * Two states had declines in local jail populations between 1999 and 2006: Alaska (down 12%) and New York (down 3%). * Between 1999 and 2006, the largest relative growth of the jail inmate population occurred in the District of Columbia (128%), followed by West Virginia (75%) and New Mexico (70%). * New Jersey (9%), Oregon (7%), and California (3%) had the smallest relative growth of jail inmate populations between 1999 and 2006. The proportions of jail inmates confined in facilities operated directly by jail jurisdictions and confined in facilities operated under contract to jail jurisdictions were the same in 1999 and 2006. * In both 1999 and 2006, 98% of all jail inmates were confined in jail facilities operated directly by jail jurisdictions, and 2% were confined in facilities operated either by private entities or by other local or state authorities under contract to jail jurisdictions. * The number of jail inmates confined in contract facilities rose 11% from 13,814 in 1999 to 15,384 in 2006. * Jail inmates in 15 states were confined in facilities operated under contract in 2009. * More than two-thirds of inmates in contract facilities in 2006 were located in four states: Texas (3,698), Tennessee (2,475), Pennsylvania (2,339), and Florida (2,157). Jail Population by size of jurisdiction Nearly half of all local jail inmates were confined in jurisdictions holding 1,000 or more inmates in 2006. Local jail jurisdictions confined 748,197 nonfederal jail inmates in 2006 (table 10). Jurisdictions in the smallest size categories accounted for the largest share of jurisdictions, but they held the smallest share of the confined jail population. Jail jurisdictions holding fewer than 100 inmates accounted for 59% of all jail jurisdictions and held 8% of the jail population. In contrast, jurisdictions in the largest size category (1,000 or more inmates) accounted for 5% of local jail jurisdictions and held half the nation's jail population. The proportion of inmates held in different size jurisdictions varied by region and state. * Nationwide, about 3% of confined jail inmates were housed in the smallest jail jurisdictions, or those holding less than 50 inmates. The proportion of jail inmates housed in jurisdictions that held fewer than 50 inmates was highest in Iowa and South Dakota, where 25% of confined inmates were held, followed by Nebraska (20%). By contrast, Maryland and New Jersey had no inmates in jail jurisdictions holding fewer than 50 inmates. * The concentration of confined jail inmates in the largest size jurisdictions (1,000 inmates or more) was highest in California (88%), Massachusetts (79%), Florida (77%), and Arizona (74%). By contrast, 14 states reported no jail jurisdictions housing 1,000 inmates or more: Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Rate of Confinement Jail confinement rates increased in most states between 1999 and 2006. * The confinement rate of inmates in local jail jurisdictions increased from 228 to 256 per 100,000 U.S. residents between 1999 and 2006 (table 11). * Louisiana (660), Georgia (462), and New Mexico (454) reported the highest confinement rates of jail inmates among the states. The District of Columbia (649), a wholly urban jurisdiction, also had one of the highest confinement rates of jail inmates in 2006. * Louisiana's resident population declined from 4,372,035 in 1999 to 4,287,768 in 2006, partly due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. If the number of residents had stayed the same in both years, Louisiana's jail incarceration rate would have been 648 inmates per 100,000 persons, still the highest of any state by a significant margin. * Maine (124) and Iowa (127) had the lowest rates of confinement of jail inmates among local jail jurisdictions. * The lowest rate of confined jail inmates was in the federal jurisdiction with 5 per 100,000 U.S. residents. * The confinement rate of jail inmates decreased in six states between 1999 and 2006: Nevada and New York (down 17 inmates each), California (down 16), Oregon (down 8), and Texas (down 6). Jail Staff Approximately 234,000 employees worked in the nation's jails. An estimated 234,000 employees worked in the nation's jails in 2006 (table 12). (See Methodology for estimation discussion.) Employees included full-time and part-time payroll and non-payroll staff working in occupations as correctional officers and administrators, and in clerical, maintenance, education, and professional staff positions. Local jail jurisdictions in the South employed the largest percentage (44%) of staff. Workers in the Northeast (19%), West (18%), and Midwest (17%) together accounted for slightly more than half of all jail employees. The number of employees increased in local jail jurisdictions and declined in the federal jurisdiction between 1999 and 2006. * Jail jurisdictions reported a total of 231,515 full-time and part-time payroll and non-payroll staff in the nation's local and federal jails in 2006. * An estimated 231,000 employees worked in local jail jurisdictions in 2006, up 11% from 207,600 employees in 1999 (not shown in table). * The number of jail staff in the federal jurisdiction declined 3%, from 3,110 employees in 1999 to 3,031 employees in 2006 (not show in table). Inmate-to-Staff Ratio The number of inmates per jail employee rose between 1999 and 2006. * The jail inmate-to-staff ratio in the U.S. increased from 2.9 to 1 in 1999 to 3.3 to 1 in 2006 (table 13). * The largest increases in the number of confined jail inmates per employee occurred in the District of Columbia (up 2.0 inmates per employee), Indiana (up 1.4), and Colorado, West Virginia, and the federal jurisdiction (up 1.0 each). * Massachusetts and Utah (down 0.4 each) and Washington (down 0.3) had the largest declines in inmate-to-staff ratios between 1999 and 2006. * Louisiana had the highest inmate-to-staff ratio in 2006 (4.7 inmates per employee), followed by California (4.6) and the federal jurisdiction (4.6). * Alaska (0.5), Maine (1.4), New York (1.5), and Massachusetts and Nebraska (1.9 each) had the lowest inmate-to-staff ratios in 2006. Methodology The 2006 Census of Jail Facilities was the ninth in a series of complete enumerations of jail facilities since 1970 collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). BJS split the jail census into two parts. The Census of Jail Inmates was conducted with a reference date of June 30, 2005. The following spring it was followed by the Census of Jail Facilities, which collected data as of March 31, 2006. The U.S. Census Bureau collected the data for BJS. The census requested jurisdictional-level information on the number of confined inmates, separate jail facilities, average daily population, renovation and building plans, court orders and consent decrees, staff by occupational category and race/ethnicity, jail programs, and costs of operation. The census also requested facility-level data on rated capacity, number of confined inmates by gender and adult or juvenile status, and jail functions, such as general adult population confinement, work release, and medical treatment. Because the census was a complete enumeration, the results were not subject to sampling error. The results were affected, however, by significant item nonresponse. Missing data ranged from 20% to 44% for average daily population, employees by full-time and part-time status, gender, race/ethnicity, occupational category, jail programs, costs of incarceration, and individual jail rated capacity. Complete or nearly complete reporting was recorded on the number of jail jurisdictions, number of jail facilities, type of facility operator (public authority or under contract), size of jail jurisdiction, and number of jail staff. Included in the census The 2006 Census of Jail Facilities gathered data from all jail detention facilities holding inmates beyond arraignment, a period normally exceeding 72 hours. Included in the census were 2,859 local jail jurisdictions made up of 3,271 city, county, or privately operated jail facilities intended for adults, but sometimes holding juveniles (defined as persons under age 18), and 12 Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities that functioned as jails. In 1999 the BOP reported its 11 detention facilities together as a single jurisdiction. In 2006 each of its 12 detention facilities was classified as a separate jurisdiction. To maintain comparability between the two censuses, BJS counted the 12 BOP detention facilities in 2006 as a single jurisdiction. Tables in this report show a nationwide total number of jail jurisdictions of 2,860, 89 fewer than the 2,949 jurisdiction records produced by the public use data set. This difference results from the reclassification of some jail reporting units to reflect a more accurate count of jail jurisdictions, and corresponds to jail jurisdiction classification procedures followed in the BJS Annual Survey of Jails series. Excluded from the census Excluded from the census were physically separate temporary holding facilities, such as drunk tanks and police lockups that do not hold persons after being formally charged in court. Also excluded were state-operated facilities in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Alaska, which have combined jail-prison systems. Fifteen independently operated jails in Alaska, however, were included in the census. Unit non-response The number of jail jurisdictions and jail facilities in 2006 are for entities that reported data. Comparisons with the number of jail jurisdictions identified in the 2005 Census of Jail Inmates and the 2000, 2006, and 2007 Deaths In Custody (DCRP) data collections indicated that nearly all queried jail jurisdictions in the 2006 Census of Jail Facilities either responded and were included or were excluded according to the scope of the census. Regional jails In addition to the 44 regional jails counted in the 2006 Census of Jail Facilities, two other BJS data sources, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006 (NCJ 217675) and Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP) unpublished data, identified 19 jails that also met the regional definition (a facility in which two or more jail jurisdictions had a formal agreement to operate), bringing the nationwide total to 63. A study conducted by Luminosity, Inc. in December 2008 reported a total of 80 regional jails operating in 22 states. ***[Footnote *Regional Jail Feasibility Study. Community Resource Services, Inc., in association with Luminosity, Inc., Gettysburg, PA. December, 2008.*** Combined jail/prison states In the 6 states with combined jail/prison systems, unsentenced prisoners and prioners with sentences of 1 year or less accounted for between 26% (Vermont) and 46% (Rhode Island) of all inmates in 2006. Estimation procedures 1. In the 14 states where the number of staff was incompletely reported, an estimate was calculated as follows: the total number of inmates was divided by the number of inmates in facilities reporting staff. The result was multiplied by the reported number of staff and rounded to the nearest 100. Complete and estimated state totals were then summed to regional totals; regional totals were rounded to the nearest 100 and summed to the total for all states and the U.S. total. Employees included full and part-time payroll and non-payroll staff and excluded community volunteers. 2. Rates, ratios, and percentage distributions were based on reported data. ********************************************* Office of Justice Programs * Innovation * Partnerships * Safer Neighborhoods http://www.ojp.gov ********************************************* ********************************************* The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. James P. Lynch is director. The full text of each report is available in PDF and ASCII formats on the BJS website at www.bjs.gov.  Tables are also available in PDF and CSV formats. Related datasets are made available on the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data website at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACJD/index.jsp. James Stephan, BJS Statistician, and Georgette Walsh, BJS Technical Writer-Editor, wrote this report. Tracy L. Snell, Todd D. Minton, and Sheri Simmons verified the report. Jill Thomas edited the report, and Barbara Quinn designed and produced the report under the supervision of Doris J. James. Pamela H. Butler, Monica Hill, Lisa A. McNelis, and Theresa M. Reitz carried out the data collection and processing under the supervision of Charlene M. Sebold, Governments Division, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Duane H. Cavanaugh and Diron J. Gaskins provided technical assistance. December 2011, NCJ 230188 ******************************************** 12/19/2011/JER/ 12:03pm