A report from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reveals new information about the more than 663,000 people held in custody in local jails across the country as of the first six months of 2022.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, local jails and prisons released thousands of inmates early due to the health risks posed by the disease. Now, jails are reporting that the population has increased since.
“Though the jail population declined during the pandemic, by midyear 2022 it was back to 90% of its midyear 2019 size,” said Bureau of Justice Statistics Acting Director Kevin M. Scott in a statement.