Jails

Jails are municipal or county-level facilities designated for the confinement of individuals who have been arrested and, in most cases, are unable to afford bail and are awaiting trial or, less commonly, have already been sentenced to a term of imprisonment and are actively serving that sentence. Although most people charged with a crime are booked in jail and released within hours or days, jails in most states allow for the confinement of those serving sentences of up to a year. Some states commonly house people serving state prison sentences in county jails through various work-release programs for terms of usually 1–5 years, and in rare cases, people awaiting trial for more serious charges may spend years in pretrial detention.

As the entryway to incarceration, jails are a critical juncture where key decisions are made that are likely to shape the trajectory for years to come for those who enter their doors. However, jails are often not equipped to appropriately deal with the myriad issues affecting people who reside in them. Likewise, those who are arrested often find their lives significantly disrupted and lack the capacity to make informed key decisions. Crises are common in jails, and most facilities are poorly equipped to provide adequate crisis intervention services. This article provides an overview of the history of jails, a portrait of their populations, and concerns about the jail system.

History

The first use of a jail in the United States can be traced back to 1632 with the construction of a “People Pen” in prerevolutionary Boston. From this time until shortly after the American Revolution, jails served as a place for holding people awaiting trial, and for others, the meting out of punishments was already imposed. Punishments for serious crimes often resulted in hangings, whipping, branding, and maiming, while less serious crimes resulted in punishments aimed at humiliation, such as the use of stocks and pillories, or the use of the ducking stool (i.e., strapping a person to a chair fastened to the end of a pole and plunging that person [usually a woman] repeatedly into a pond or river). Incarceration in jail as a form of punishment itself— measured in days, months, or years—did not exist until the conversion of Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Jail in 1790. The addition of 16 solitary wings to the jail reflected the prevailing Quaker belief that solitary reflection would lead to remorse.

Throughout the 19th century, states and localities increasingly shifted more toward incarceration as the primary means of punishment and away from corporal punishments. Not every jurisdiction had jails, however, so the type of punishment often depended on available measures. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that jails began to proliferate across the country.

As of 2018, there are over 3,300 jails in the United States holding approximately 730,000 people. The number of people detained in jail at any given time, however, drastically underestimates the number of people revolving through its doors. In recent years, jails have recorded over 11 million jail admissions annually, with many people returning multiple times each year.

Portrait of the Population

Jails house some of society’s most vulnerable groups. Although men make up almost 90% of all those in jail, the female jail population has, in recent years, been the fastest growing segment of the American jail population. Jails have a disproportionate effect on virtually every disadvantaged group in the United States.

Race and Ethnicity

African Americans and Latinos collectively make up more than half of all people in jail. Despite constituting only 13% of the U.S. population, African Americans make up about 35% of those incarcerated in U.S. jails, a rate 4 times that of Caucasian and 3 times the rate of Latinos. These disparities vary by jail size and geography with larger jail systems such as Rikers Island in New York City and jail systems in Los Angeles County and Cook County, IL, having much wider disparities between African Americans and Whites than smaller jails in more rural areas. The average stay in jail also varies greatly by race, particularly for African Americans who spend an average of 2 weeks longer in jail longer than Caucasian. Although Native Americans make up only a small portion of those in jail, they have rates of overrepresentation similar to those of African Americans. Asian Americans are underrepresented in jails.

Education, Employment, and Income

Almost half of all those in jail do not have a high school diploma or GED. Many did not finish school either because of academic or behavior problems, because they were incarcerated, or for economic reasons. Given their low levels of educational attainment, it is not surprising that people in jail have a high prearrest unemployment rate. A little more than half of all those in jail were gainfully employed at the time of their arrest, with only a minority earning above-poverty-level wages. Those with low educational attainment and low (or no) incomes are also more likely to stay in jail longer since they are often unable to make bond.

Mental Illness

The prevalence of mental health problems has existed among people in jail since the deinstitutionalization of patients with mental illnesses from state psychiatric hospitals during the 1970s. Jails, by default, have become de facto mental health facilities. The three largest institutional providers of mental health services in the United States are, in fact, jails: Los Angeles County, Rikers Island in New York, and Cook County. About 14% of people in jail have a serious mental illness, a rate about 4–5 times higher than in the general population. Individuals with serious mental illnesses are much less likely to receive mental health screening or treatment once in jail and are also more likely to be punished and placed in solitary confinement. People with mental illnesses are also at significantly high risk of victimization and self-harm. Once placed in jail, those who were being treated for their mental illnesses before their arrest, at best, experience at least a temporary interruption in their care and, at worst, a complete discontinuation of their care and a worsening of their mental health conditions.

Substance Use

About two thirds of those in jail have a substance use disorder, while three quarters of those in jail with a serious mental illness have a cooccurring substance use disorder. Women in jail are far more likely to have a substance use disorder than men, although the rate is high for both genders. Alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine are the three most commonly abused substances among men and women who enter jail. Women in jail with substance dependency also have experienced higher rates of sexual abuse than women without substance dependency. The relatively short periods of time people spend in jail combined with security-oriented staff not trained in providing therapeutic services do not make jails optimal facilities for mental health or substance abuse treatment.

Crimes

About three quarters of all people in jail are incarcerated for nonviolent drug, property, or public order offenses, such as driving while intoxicated or traffic offenses. Most people in jail— about half a million—are in pretrial detention but unable to pay their bail and thus are legally innocent. About a quarter of all those in jail are charged with violent offenses, with assault charges being by far the most common violent offense. Only a small percentage of people in jail are charged with more serious violent crimes such as murder, rape, or sexual assault. Since jails are localized facilities, they are often reflective of their surrounding communities’ enforcement priorities and political dynamics, which can vary greatly by region.

Common Concerns

Criminal justice advocates, attorneys, and mental health experts are concerned about inhumane conditions and a lack of treatment services in jails, while politicians and government officials are concerned with the costs of detaining millions of people in jail each year with little to no positive outcomes. Although many people disagree with how best to address these concerns regarding jails, on a number of issues, a broad consensus exists that changes need to occur.

Overcrowding

A primary issue facing jails is overcrowding. People in jails throughout the country are often forced to sleep on floors due to a lack of available beds. Some jurisdictions have addressed overcrowding in their jails by lowering the bonds of many nonviolent offenders, hoping to decrease the number of people stuck in jail simply because they cannot afford bail. Others have sought to reduce penalties for offenses (e.g., California’s Proposition 47 downgraded many drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors). Led by California’s criminal justice realignment laws adopted in 2011, states have increased the use of split sentencing, allowing people to serve part of their sentence in jail and part under community supervision. Many counties are also increasingly experimenting with evidence-based problem-solving courts such as drug or mental health courts both as a jail diversion program and as a means of addressing the underlying issue that contributed to the criminal behavior in the first place. Although some jails appear to have had some success with these measures, jail overcrowding remains a problem in virtually every jail in the United States.

Suicide

Suicide is the leading cause of death among people in jail, accounting for about one third of all jail deaths annually. Smaller jails have higher suicide rates than larger jails, likely because larger jails are better equipped to be proactive with suicide prevention measures than smaller jails with fewer staff and resources. Scholars have called on jails to follow recommendations commonly set forth in psychiatric hospitals for suicide prevention, including training programs, screening procedures, communication, and documentation as a way to curb these high suicide rates. Still, around 300 people commit suicide in jail each year.

Solitary Confinement

Solitary confinement (i.e., the placement of individuals in isolation, devoid of human contact except with corrections staff) is perhaps the most extreme form of punishment in jails. While less than 3% of those in jail are housed in this manner on a given day, about 1 in 5 will spend some time in solitary before he or she leaves jail. A disproportionate number of people in solitary confinement have some form of mental illness, placing them at increased risk of worsening mental health symptoms, such as anxiety and post-traumatic symptoms. Many jails have come under heavy criticism for systemically housing gay and transgender people in solitary confinement, increasing their risk of self-harm.

Financial Costs

The cost of incarcerating 730,000 people each day in jail costs over US$20 billion annually, or about US$31,000 per person. Personnel costs, contracts, and utilities make up the vast majority of jail expenditures with only a tiny fraction allotted for treatment services for people with mental health or substance use issues. The skyrocketing cost of jails can be attributed in large part to the average length of stay. Since 1983, the number of people in jail has tripled as the average stay has increased from 14 to 23 days, while the cost per inmate has stayed relatively the same.

Negative Consequences

Going to jail—even for a short period of time— has adverse consequences that extend well beyond release. Millions of people each year experience a combination of negative effects, including the interruption of mental health treatment, a disruption to their families resulting from their absence, the loss of jobs, and the associated stigma that often follows an arrest or conviction. These effects have a significant influence on those adjusting to the rigors of a highly structured jail environment, increasing their stress and anxiety and worsening preexisting mental health symptoms for many. Spending time in jail, especially an extended period of time, can also lead to a loss of Social Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance, causing significant financial strain for those ordered to pay fines by the court. This often creates a revolving door of people who return to jail shortly after having left it since they are in worse mental and financial shape than when they entered the first time. This rapid turnover of people in jails makes any type of service provision or discharge planning incredibly difficult. Being detained in jail, regardless of the outcome of the charges, increases the risk of homelessness afterward.

References:

1. Cornelius, G. F. (1996). Jails in America: An overview of issues. College Park, MD: American Correctional Association.
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3. Karberg, J. C., & James, D. J. (2005). Substance dependence, abuse, and treatment of jail inmates, 2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
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