Jacob Kang-Brown | March 31, 2016
The Rise of 1,000 Small Jails
Some jails are notorious. Think New York City’s Rikers Island or the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail. News stories about overcrowding, violence, and deplorable conditions fuel ongoing public debate about the nation’s two largest jail systems and capture the public’s imagination about just what jail looks like. But it turns out urban jails are in decline—there is even a movement to “close the jail” in New York City; Los Angeles is already tearing down its largest jail and building a smaller one—and it is rural America that represents the true picture of U.S. jails today. That’s because growth in the jail population is not driven by the largest counties; it has taken root in a thousand very small ones across the United States.
Of course, it wasn’t always like this. The nation’s very small counties once had less than half as many people in jail as New York City and Los Angeles combined.
Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox
Explore More Articles
Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox
Receive our monthly/bi-monthly newsletter filled with information about causes, nonprofit impact, and topics important for corporate social responsibility and employee engagement professionals, including disaster response, workplace giving, matching gifts, employee assistance funds, volunteering, scholarship award program management, grantmaking, and other philanthropic initiatives.