Welcome to the Jail Data Initiative population dashboard. On this page, you will find overall jail population trends that can be filtered by demographics of those incarcerated, geography, and/or time frame. Depending on the selected date range, the number of rosters included may vary due to fluctuations in the start dates of data collection and the availability of accessible roster data.
The Jail Profiles page provides in-depth data on individual jails that can be filtered by county, and the Glossary of Terms tab on the Documentation page provides detailed definitions of terms used throughout the site.
This report provides an overview of jail incarceration in 2023 using the JDI data, including an analysis of the relative costs and benefits of jail incarceration.
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The map above displays average daily jail population over the selected date range, per 100,000 county residents. Use the selector above to toggle between views.
1 Jail roster demographic categorizations do not necessarily align with chosen by the U.S. Census Bureau in the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). The 2019 ACS does not record trans and non-binary populations, so selecting either of these gender filter options will default the map denominator to all genders.
2 Although the ACS does record ethnicity (Hispanic and Non-Hispanic), jail rosters often report race and ethnicity interchangeably or inaccurately. We thus combine race and ethnicity into a single filter "Race"; white in this categorization scheme specifically indicates Non-Hispanic white, while "Other POC" includes Hispanic white, Middle Eastern, and other values like "multiracial" and "nonwhite".
3 Detention capacities are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2013 Census of Jails. Some capacities are missing, inaccurate or out of date, and in these cases average jail population as a percentage of detention capacity will display as infinity due to division by zero. We will update these values manually on an ongoing basis in lieu of a current data source. If you notice a value that is incorrect, please contact us.
Click the Get PDF button to download a PDF version of this page.
To download a CSV version of the data on this page: click the Per Day button for stats by date, or Per Roster for stats by state/roster.
Click the Full CSV button to download a CSV of the complete historical data (2020 through present) used to build this dashboard. These data are aggregated up to the roster-date level (they do not contain population data by demographic group).