Research Report

摘要

Each year, more than 12m Americans are booked into local jails for crimes ranging from misdemeanor traffic violations to felony serial homicide, with more than 740,000 people held in these facilities in the USA at any given time (Turney and Conner, 2019; Zeng, 2018). By comparison, about 575,000 individuals are admitted to state prisons in the USA every year (Minton and Zeng, 2015). Across the country, jail incarceration rates have increased over the past few decades, with considerable growth occurring in rural and suburban areas (Henrichson and Fishman, 2017; Zeng, 2018). As a secondary challenge, jails, unlike prisons, house those serving sentences less than a year or awaiting trial, and therefore most jail inmates face quicker reentry and the challenges it may present (Petersilia, 2001; Zeng, 2018). As such, the rate of jail re-incarceration is substantially elevated, even compared to prison populations (Williams et al., 2010). This has led many jails to seem to have a “revolving door” (Baillargeon et al., 2009), often with very high turnover rates (Zeng, 2018). Therefore, the gains to be made from evidence-based policies that reduce incarceration, improve reentry planning and stem recidivism are especially large when focusing on jail populations. There are several key issues that contribute to current problems of jail overcrowding, detention rates and recidivism that can be targeted in research and policy.