Chartbook

Jan 2021

Getty Images

Local Spending on Jails
Tops $25 Billion in Latest
Nationwide Data
Costs increased despite falling crime and fewer people being admitted to jail

The Pew Charitable Trusts
Michael Caudell-Feagan, executive vice president and chief program officer
Michael D. Thompson, senior vice president, government performance
Yolanda Lewis, senior director, safety and justice

Project team
Jake Horowitz, director
Tracy Velázquez, manager
Kyleigh Clark-Moorman, senior associate

External reviewers
This chartbook benefited from the insights and expertise of Mike Brouwer, criminal justice coordinator, and Matt
Cravens, Ph.D., data analyst, Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Douglas County, Kansas; Jerry L. Demings,
mayor, Orange County, Florida; and Paul W. Heimel, commissioner, Potter County, Pennsylvania. Neither they nor
their organizations necessarily endorse the findings or conclusions.

Acknowledgments
The project team thanks current and former Pew colleagues Zeynep Çelik, Erika Compart, Jennifer V. Doctors,
Michael Freeman, Jennie Hommel, Jessie Mandirola, Graham Murphy, Jennifer Peltak, Jen Sirko, Alan van der
Hilst, and Gaye Williams for their assistance with research, production, and distribution.

Overview
Historically, the roughly 3,000 local jails operating in the United States
have received less public and policymaker attention than prisons.1 But
now, the COVID-19 pandemic has put jails—secure correctional facilities,
generally operated by county or municipal governments, where people are
detained before trial or confined post-conviction for periods usually lasting
less than a year—under additional scrutiny.2 Jails rely on close confinement
and so are high risk for disease transmission.3 Local governments are
also confronting the budget implications of the pandemic and looking for
potential savings, especially in costly areas such as corrections.4
This environment provides an opportunity to examine correctional
expenditures and consider strategies that may offer enduring public
safety and fiscal benefits.5 The available data indicates that to mitigate
COVID-19 exposure risk, jurisdictions reduced jail populations by about
31% nationwide from March to May 2020, and although those populations
partially rebounded, they were still 15% below March levels as of October
2020.6 Further, people released from jail in March were readmitted
less often over the ensuing six months than those released in January,
suggesting that the pandemic-related decreases in jail populations did not
affect public safety. These reductions may not yield immediate savings,
but a sustained commitment to safely cutting the number of people in
jail could provide long-term financial benefits. The recent experience of
reducing prison populations offers a glimpse of the potential cost savings:
The 9% drop in the prison population from 2008 to 2018 virtually flattened
corrections spending, which had averaged 5.4% annual growth from 1991
to 2007.7
To support state and local efforts to reduce jail spending and protect public
safety, The Pew Charitable Trusts undertook an analysis of jail costs, using
expenditure data for all U.S. localities, primarily from 2007 and 2017, and
related criminal justice data. (See methodology for details on definitions
and analyses.)

Key findings include:
Local governments spend billions on jails. As of the end of 2017:
• Jail and other local corrections costs had risen sixfold since 1977,
with jail costs reaching $25 billion.
• Almost 2 in 5 dollars spent on state and local correctional institutions
went to jails.
• About 1 in 17 county dollars was spent on jails.
• The average annual cost of holding a person in jail was
about $34,000.
• Roughly a third of jail facility capacity was more than 30 years old,
and about 20% of jails were overcrowded, which could present
significant capital challenges to local budgets.
Jail costs rose even as crime and admissions to jail fell. As of the
end of 2017:
• A 20% decrease in crime and a 19% drop in jail admissions since
2007 had not led to reduced jail spending.
• The portion of local budgets spent on jails did not correlate with state
crime rates.
• Small localities spent more per capita on jails than most other
jurisdictions, despite having lower crime rates.
Nationwide, counties and cities are seeking to address budgetary pressures
during these difficult fiscal times and for the long term. New policies and
practices—including many they already have embraced in response to the
pandemic—can safely reduce jail populations and associated costs and
help them achieve those goals.

-

1

Figure 1

Jail Costs Increased 13%, to $25 Billion, Between 2007 and 2017
Total local corrections expenditures, 1977 to 2017
30B

$

27B

$

$30B

25B

2017 dollars

$

18B

$

$20B

22B

$

11B

$10B

5B

$

1977

Jail and other corrections expenditures

1987

1997

■ Jail expenditures

2007

2017

■ Other corrections expenditures

Notes: Expenditures have been adjusted to 2017 dollars and exclude the seven states that have unified or quasi-unified
systems. Figures shown are rounded to the nearest $1 billion.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (1977 to 2017),
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

2

Jail costs were 13% higher in 2017
than 2007, rising from $22 billion
to $25 billion and outpacing the
increase in total local expenditures
for all spending categories (9%).8
During that same span, jails
accounted for roughly 84 cents of
every local government dollar spent
on corrections.

$

$0B

In 2017, local governments spent
521% more on corrections than they
did in 1977.

The share of total local corrections
spending that went toward jails
before 2007 is unknown because
jail costs were combined in the
data with other local corrections
expenditures until 2005.

Figure 2

Jails Account for Almost 2 in 5 Local and State Corrections Dollars
City and county jail expenditures as a percentage of all correctional facilities
spending by state, 2017
ME
40%
VT

NH
37%

NY
50%

MA

RI

WA
47%

ID
31%

MT
25%

ND
47%

MN
50%

WI
39%

MI
24%

OR
32%

NV
65%

WY
38%

SD
31%

IA
35%

IL
32%

IN
35%

PA
37%

NJ
38%

CT

CA
38%

UT
41%

CO
37%

NE
37%

MO
21%

KY
34%

OH
22%

VA
49%

MD
26%

DE

AZ
29%

NM
40%

KS
42%

AR
39%

TN
43%

WV
12%

SC
38%

NC
32%

OK
23%

LA
55%

MS
35%

AL
30%

GA
47%

AK

HI

TX
36%

FL
46%

Local jails’ share of all correctional facility expenditures

Jails accounted for 39% of all
nonfederal correctional institution
expenditures in 2017. The rest went
to state institutions such as prisons,
which generally house people
sentenced to a year or more.
The share of correctional funds
spent on jails varied by state in 2017.
State policies—such as who may be
detained in jail or allowed bail, when
probation or parole supervision
can be revoked, and the length of
sentences imposed for particular
offenses—can influence the number
of people incarcerated in local jails
and the costs to taxpayers.9
States and institutions also differ
in the types of spending they
categorize as prison and jail
expenditures.10 For example, some
jurisdictions’ correctional budgets
include health care costs, which
can consume as much as a third of
corrections dollars.11

■ 12%-22% ■ 23%-33% ■ 34%-44% ■ 45%-55% ■ 56%-66%

Note: The seven states with unified or quasi-unified systems are excluded from the analysis.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2017), https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

3

Figure 3

1 in 17 County Dollars Goes to Jails
Share of county spending by function, 2017
0.12

$

Hospitals

0.10

$

K-12 education

0.09

$

Health

Expenditure category

About 1 in 5 counties does not
operate a jail; some jails are shared
regionally, while some are run by
cities or states.13

0.07

$

Police

0.06

County roads

$

Jails

$

0.06

0.05

$

Courts

0.04

$

Water, sewers, and solid waste

0.02

Parks and recreation

$

Fire protection

$

0.02

0.01

Housing and community development

$

Libraries

$

0.01

$0

$0.02

$0.04

$0.06

$0.08

$0.10

$0.12

$0.14

Cents per expenditure dollar
Notes: Counties’ remaining direct expenditures fall into various other categories (at less than $0.03 per dollar each). Counties
that do not operate jails are excluded from the analysis.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2017), https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

4

Counties that operate jails spent
roughly 6% of their local funds,
or 1 in 17 dollars, on jails in 2017,
making jails their sixth-largest
expense category.12 Jails consumed
about a third of all county public
safety dollars.

Figure 4

Local Governments Spent Almost $34,000 for Each Occupied Jail
Space in 2017
Average annual cost per occupied bed, 2007 and 2017
$40,000
$35,000

33,922

$

2017 dollars

$30,000
$25,000

29,026

$

$20,000
$15,000
$10,000

The average annual cost of a year in
jail was about $34,000 per person in
2017, an increase of 17% from 2007.
Operating expenses such as
personnel, utilities, and health
care made up 97% of jail costs.
Employment expenditures
accounted for roughly half of total
corrections costs in 2007 and 2017.14
Some jail costs can be reduced with
any decline in population; these
include big-ticket items such as
health care. However, jails also
carry significant fixed expenses,
such as utilities, that are the same
regardless of how many people
are in a jail facility.15

$5,000
$0
2007

2017

Notes: Expenditures have been adjusted to 2017 dollars and exclude the seven states that have unified or quasi-unified systems.
Figures shown were calculated by dividing annual local expenditures by the average daily jail population. Expenses included in
jail budgets vary by jurisdiction.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2017), https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html; Z. Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2018” (2020), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/
pdf/ji18.pdf
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

5

Figure 5

About a Third of Jail Space in the U.S. Is 30 Years Old or Older
Total national jail capacity, 1987 to 2017
1,000,000

2017

900,000

Total U.S. rated jail bed capacity

800,000
700,000

2007

600,000

........
...... 1997 ......
.••.••.••.•• .••.•• .••.••.
• • • • • • • • •

500,000
400,000

- - - - - - - - ------- •

300,000
200,000
100,000

•

•

• 1---- - - - - - - - -

1987

0
Note: Data includes estimates of jail space in all states and Washington, D.C., except Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii,
Rhode Island, and Vermont, which have unified jail and prison systems; 1987 and 1997 estimates also exclude Alaska.
Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 1987” (1989), http://www.bjs.gov/
content/pub/pdf/cpus87.pdf; Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997” (2000),
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus97.pdf; Z. Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2018” (2020), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/
pdf/ji18.pdf
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

6

Between 1987 and 1997, as the
nation’s jail population increased
92%, states and localities added
almost 300,000 jail beds.16
As of 2017, about 30% of local jails
were at least 30 years old. Research
shows that jail infrastructure can
degrade substantially after 30 to
40 years of wear and tear.17 Further,
20% of jails were operating over
capacity in 2017.18
Jurisdictions with older or
insufficient jails may need to
consider jail construction in
coming years, which is likely to
carry significant costs.19 As of
2009, new jail construction
was estimated to cost about
$100,000 per bed space.20
Reducing jail populations could
curb the need to add jail beds
and allow outdated facilities to be
decommissioned, potentially saving
taxpayers millions of dollars.21

Figure 6

Falling Crime and Jail Admissions Did Not Translate Into Taxpayer
Savings
Percentage change in crime and jail admissions, population, and expenditures,
2007 to 2017

Percentage change, 2007 to 2017

15%
10%

13%

5%
0%
-5%

-4%

-10%
-15%

-20%

-19%

Crimes

Jail admissions

Jail spending increased 13% between
2007 and 2017, even though
2 million fewer crimes were reported
to law enforcement in 2017 than
10 years earlier.22 During that same
span, jail admissions dropped 19%,
from 13.1 million to 10.6 million,
and the average daily jail population
declined by 4%, or 27,500 people.23
However, jail populations were
relatively stagnant between 2007
and 2017 because the average
number of days spent in jail
increased from 22 to 26 during
that period, which largely offset
the decrease in admissions.24

-20%
-25%

Jail expenditures

Jail population

Notes: Expenditures have been adjusted to 2017 dollars. The spending and crime figures exclude the seven states that
have unified or quasi-unified systems; the admissions and population figures include two of those states—Alaska and
Massachusetts—and Washington, D.C. “Crime” includes serious offenses as defined by the FBI: homicide, rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2007 and 2017), https://www.
census.gov/programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html; Z. Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2018” (2020), https://www.bjs.gov/
content/pub/pdf/ji18.pdf; Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States” (2007 and 2017), https://www.fbi.
gov/services/cjis/ucr
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

7

Figure 7

State Crime Rates Were Not Correlated With Jail Spending

Across states, the percentage of
local expenditures going to jails
varied and was not significantly
related to crime rates in 2017.25
Jail spending accounted for
between 0.6% and 3% of total
local spending in each state.

Jail expenditures as a percentage of local spending, compared with crime rate by
state, 2017

2.5%
2.0%
1.5%

5,000

•

.•

•

•
•

•

• • •
•

•
••
•

•

• •
•••• • •
•

4,000

•

•
•

4,500

-

•

-

-

-

-

3,000
-

~

-

~

-

-

-

-

-

1,500

d - C---------- C-C------------ C-C----Missouri
Ohio
West Virginia
Illinois
Iowa
Alabama
Nebraska
Montana
Michigan
Oklahoma
South Carolina
North Carolina
Indiana
Minnesota
Tennessee
Wyoming
Maryland
Kansas
Colorado
Utah
Texas
Washington
Mississippi
Arizona
New Jersey
California
South Dakota
New Hampshire
New York
Oregon
Arkansas
Pennsylvania
North Dakota
Georgia
Wisconsin
Florida
Maine
Kentucky
Idaho
Louisiana
Virginia
New Mexico
Nevada

0%

2,500
2,000

1.0%
0.5%

3,500

■ Percentage spent on jails

•

1,000
500
0

Crimes per 100,000 residents

Note: Expenditures include all localities, regardless of whether they report jail costs, and exclude the seven states that have
unified or quasi-unified systems.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2017), https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html; Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States, 2017”
(2017), https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/tables/table-5
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

8

Crimes per 100,000 residents

Jails' percentage of local expenditures

3.0%

Residents of some states with lower
crime rates spent more of their
local budgets on jails than those in
states with higher crime rates. For
example, Nevada and Missouri were
at opposite ends of the spectrum in
jail spending despite having similar
crime rates, while in California and
New Jersey, communities spent
roughly the same share of their
budgets, despite divergent state
crime rates.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics
has not produced state-level jail
admission or population data since
2013.26 Such data could potentially
show differences in admissions,
populations, or lengths of stay in jail
that might explain cost variations
across states.

Figure 8

Small Localities Had the Least Crime but the Second-Most Per
Capita Jail Spending
Jail expenditures per local resident and crime rates, 2017
$120

3,500

107 3,081

$

2,795

$100

2017 dollars

$80

2,537
72

$

82

$

2,500

1,955

2,000

$60
1,500
$40

1,000

$20

Crimes per 100,000 residents

77

$

3,000

500

$0

0
1 million or more

■ Jail expenditures per local resident

250,000 to 999,999

50,000 to 249,999

Fewer than 50,000

■ Crimes per 100,000 residents

Note: Expenditures exclude the seven states that have unified or quasi-unified systems and counties and cities that either had
no jail expenditure or crime data or had crime and expenditure datasets that were inconsistent.

When comparing localities by size,
jurisdictions with fewer than
50,000 people, which are generally
more rural, had the lowest crime
rate but paid the second-highest
amount per resident on jails. The
crime rate for these jurisdictions was
a third lower than that of the largest
jurisdictions—those with more than
a million residents.
Jails with fewer than 250 people
confined, which are often in smaller
jurisdictions, saw a 7% increase in
population from 2007 to 2017, but
their capacity increased by 17%, or
just over 30,000 beds.27
Additionally, jail populations are
growing in rural counties, and
research suggests that this trend
may be driven by sharp increases
in rates of pretrial incarceration.28

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2017), https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html; Federal Bureau of Investigation, “2017 Crime by County Master File”
(2020)
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

9

Conclusion
Nationwide, crime and jail admissions decreased between 2007 and 2017, yet spending on jails
increased 13%, to $25 billion, over that same span, consuming almost 1 in 17 local budget dollars.
Although prisons have been the major focus of corrections budget discussions in the past, the cost
of jails may face increased scrutiny as counties and municipalities confront mounting fiscal pressures
from the economic downturn associated with COVID-19.
Safely cutting jail costs could provide needed budget relief for local jurisdictions in the coming months
and years, and a key strategy to reduce jail spending is further shrinking jail populations. By continuing
and expanding on policies that already have lowered confined populations during the pandemic,
public officials can downsize their jail systems and potentially decommission older facilities, delivering
meaningful taxpayer savings and protecting public safety.

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10

Appendix: Methodology
This chartbook primarily uses data from the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State and Local
Government Finances, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, and “Jail Inmates in 2018”
from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).29

The Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances
The survey is the only uniform nationwide dataset on government finances and provides information on
expenditures, revenue, assets, and debts for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., organized by government
function.30 Census data is collected every five years (those ending in “2” or “7”); annual data is collected
from a sample of localities for all other years.31
The Census Bureau categorizes spending into functions; only direct expenditures—external payments made by
local or state governments from their own revenue—were included in this analysis. Direct expenditures cover
current operations, construction, land and existing structures, equipment, and assistance and subsidies, if
applicable. Intergovernmental transfers—money paid to other governments for functions such as housing people
in jails—also were excluded.
The Census Bureau provides five “correctional institution” function codes for direct jail expenditures: E04:
Current Operations, F04: Land and Existing Structures, G04: Construction, J04: Assistance and Subsidies, and
K04: Equipment.32 Equipment applies to states and the federal government, while assistance and subsidies is
applicable only to the federal government. The Census Bureau provides separate data for state-level expenditures
(i.e., state prisons) and county, city, municipality, and township spending (i.e., local jails). For the purposes of
this study, all categories are considered cities, except counties. Since 2005, correctional institution expenditures
have not included local community supervision functions such as probation and parole, which now fall under
the “Other Corrections” category. Before 2005, the bureau grouped all local corrections costs—correctional
institutions and supervision—under the “Other Corrections” category.
In line with past research using this data, all expenditures were adjusted to 2017 constant dollars using chaintype price indices for gross domestic product from the 2019 Economic Report of the President, Table B-5.33
Although the census standardizes expenditures as much as possible, the types of spending included in reported
jail expenditures are not necessarily uniform across jails or states. This report did not attempt to consider such
variations in reported expenses. For example, reported figures do not indicate the extent to which costs such as
health care for people confined in jail are included in some counties but not others; additionally, jail spending as
a portion of all local expenditures depends on what else—for instance, K-12 education—is part of each locality’s

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11

budget. Expenditures presented in Figure 1 were rounded to the nearest $1 billion. All other amounts were
rounded to the nearest whole dollar—or cents, if under $1. Percentages and percentage differences
were calculated with unrounded numbers and then rounded to the nearest whole percentage.

Uniform Crime Reporting program
The UCR provides yearly estimates of serious violent and property crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated
assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft) reported to law enforcement at the national, state, and local
levels.34 Although the UCR expanded its definition of rape in 2013, the estimates in this chartbook use the
“legacy” definition for all years to ensure comparability over time.35

Jail Inmates in 2018
The BJS analyzes and compares data from the Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ), a nationally representative
review that estimates the number of individuals admitted to jail and the average daily population (ADP) in jail
for various years.36

National and state-level analyses
Data cleaning
The Census Bureau provides pre-aggregated state and local expenditures for each state in the national and statelevel analyses. For this chartbook, the researchers included data from 43 states. Seven states were eliminated
based on the nature of their jail systems. Six states—Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and
Vermont—operate unified systems in which spending on jail and prison systems is integrated. In these cases,
expenditures for the different institution types cannot be separated.37 Similarly, Massachusetts has a “quasiunified” system and has not reported local jail spending to the Census Bureau since 2007.38 Washington, D.C.;
Puerto Rico; and other nonstate jurisdictions were excluded except where otherwise noted.
Because of data collection processes, “Jail Inmates in 2018” primarily covers nonunified states; it excludes
Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont but includes Alaska, Massachusetts, and D.C.39
Further, state-level jail estimates are not provided because the ASJ sample is designed for national-level
estimation only. Supplemental analysis of the most recent Census of Jails, which includes all jails, shows that
nonunified states accounted for roughly 99% of jail jurisdictions, yearly jail admissions, and ADP in 2013.40

Calculating cost per occupied jail space
Pew’s researchers calculated the average yearly cost per occupied jail space by dividing the annual jail
expenditures by the ADP.

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12

Comparing jail expenditures and crime
When analyzing national and state-level jail spending and crime, census and UCR population data was matched
to ensure similar coverage and was found to have less than a 7% difference in estimated resident populations for
each state for all years included.

County and city-level analyses
Data cleaning
The county and city analyses relied on discrete rather than pre-aggregated local-level census data. Counties are
primarily responsible for operating jails, and the original census data included 3,029 counties in all states and
D.C. Pew researchers first eliminated jurisdictions in the unified and quasi-unified states—Alaska, Connecticut,
Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont—and D.C., which together account for 41 counties.
Another 97 counties, including all localities in Virginia, were excluded because they rely entirely or primarily on
regional jails for which operations responsibilities are shared among multiple counties.41
Some counties have multiple jails, and some are home to cities or special districts that operate jails.42 A city jail
is funded by the city, whereas the Census Bureau considers special district jails to be independent governments.
Because special districts may be operated by more than one county or city, localities associated with these jails
(five counties and three cities) were also eliminated from the analysis. Finally, 591 counties in the remaining
sample did not operate jails and were also omitted. Many of the counties without jail expenditures make
intergovernmental payments to other localities to house people in jails.
After these data reductions, 2,295 counties and 660 cities remained that had at least one direct jail expenditure
function code. The county analysis comparing local costs includes all 2,295 counties.

Calculating crime information by population group
Because counties could include more than one jail or contain cities or municipalities that operate jails, all
remaining cases were aggregated to the parent county level or to the city level if the listed parent county did not
operate a jail. Aggregation yielded 2,955 jail expenditure codes representing 2,375 unique cities and counties
(“baseline data”). Based on the most recent Census of Jails, 2,931 local jails operated within 2,685 jurisdictions
nationwide in 2013, although jurisdictions may not correspond directly to the Census Bureau’s classifications of
counties or cities.43
To compare crime information, Pew researchers obtained local-level UCR data directly from the FBI, but

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13

information was not available for all 2,375 localities. To ensure comparability across datasets, an additional
71 localities were eliminated from this analysis because they did not have matches in the UCR data.
Like the state-level analyses, local population estimates from UCR and the Census Bureau were compared to
ensure similar coverage. First, 43 localities that did not have a population estimate in the UCR data were dropped.
Second, because the population size groups were of primary importance in this analysis, 52 counties or cities that
did not fall into the same population size category in both the UCR and the census datasets were also eliminated.
Additionally, 198 other localities that had inconsistencies among the UCR and census population estimates
(those that were more than 10% different) were removed. These exclusions resulted in 2,011 unique localities
for use in comparing jail spending and crime rate at the county and city level, grouped by population (“reduced
county and city data”). Because the census and UCR data contain local population estimates, per-local-resident
jail spending was calculated using the census population estimate, while crime per 100,000 local residents was
calculated using the UCR estimate.

Table A.1

Baseline and Reduced County and City 2017 Data
Baseline county and city data

Reduced county and city data

Locality count

Total population

Per-local-resident
jail expenditures

Locality count

Total population

Per-local-resident
jail expenditures

1 million or more

39

88,912,201

$106

33

80,978,514

$107

250,000 to 999,999

190

93,257,869

$79

179

86,886,441

$77

50,000 to 249,999

602

66,116,565

$71

537

58,863,118

$72

Fewer than 50,000

1,544

30,498,988

$81

1,262

25,495,458

$82

Population group

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2007 and 2017), https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html; Federal Bureau of Investigation, “2017 Crime by County Master File” (2020)
© 2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts

14

Endnotes
1

T.D. Minton et al., “Census of Jails: Population Changes, 1999-2013” (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015), https://www.bjs.gov/content/
pub/pdf/cjpc9913.pdf; C. Henrichson, J. Rinaldi, and R. Delaney, “The Price of Jails: Measuring the Taxpayer Cost of Local Incarceration”
(Vera Institute of Justice, 2015), https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/price-of-jails.pdf.

2

Z. Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2018” (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2020), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji18.pdf; E. Reinhart and D.L.
Chen, “Incarceration and Its Disseminations: COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons From Chicago’s Cook County Jail,” Health Affairs 39, no. 8
(2020): 1412-18, https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00652.

3

Reinhart and Chen, “Incarceration and Its Disseminations: COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons.”

4

A. Siripurapu and J. Masters, “How the Coronavirus Will Harm State and City Budgets” (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020), https://
www.cfr.org/backgrounder/how-coronavirus-will-harm-state-and-city-budgets.

5

P.V. McHarris and T. McHarris, “No More Money for the Police,” The New York Times, May 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.
com/2020/05/30/opinion/george-floyd-police-funding.html.

6

A. Harvey, O. Taylor, and A. Wang, “COVID-19, Jails, and Public Safety” (Council on Criminal Justice, 2020), https://cdn.ymaws.com/
counciloncj.org/resource/resmgr/covid_commission/covid-19,_jails,_and_public_.pdf.

7

L.M. Maruschak and T.D. Minton, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 2017-2018” (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2020), https://
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus1718.pdf; National Association of State Budget Officers, “1991-2019 State Expenditure Report Data”
(2019), https://www.nasbo.org/mainsite/reports-data/state-expenditure-report/ser-download-data.

8

“Local expenditures” refers to direct spending only and excludes intergovernmental transfers. See methodology for additional details.

9

National Conference of State Legislatures, “State Policies Affecting Local Jails,” accessed Sept. 29, 2020, https://www.ncsl.org/research/
civil-and-criminal-justice/state-policies-affecting-local-jails.aspx; R. Williams, “Bail or Jail,” State Legislatures Magazine (May 2012),
https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/bail-or-jail.aspx; The Pew Charitable Trusts, “To Safely Cut Incarceration, States
Rethink Responses to Supervision Violations” (2019), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/07/tosafely-cut-incarceration-states-rethink-responses-to-supervision-violations; D.M. Bennett and D. Lattin, “Jail Capacity Planning Guide:
A Systems Approach” (National Institute of Corrections, 2009), https://info.nicic.gov/nicrp/system/files/022722.pdf.		

10 Henrichson, Rinaldi, and Delaney, “The Price of Jails.”
11

Ibid.; The Pew Charitable Trusts, “Jails: Inadvertent Health Care Providers” (2018), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/
reports/2018/01/jails-inadvertent-health-care-providers.

12 In some jurisdictions, independent school districts may be responsible for some or all K-12 education expenses; 2,752 counties in the
Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances reported independent school districts in 2017, which accounted for almost
$523 billion in K-12 expenditures.
13 Although it is unclear from the data whether these counties without jail expenditures are paying intergovernmental costs to other
jurisdictions to operate jails/house their local correctional population or are part of a regional jail system, roughly 21% of the sample
counties did not include direct jail expenditure functions in their Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data.
14 U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll, 2017, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/apes/data/
datasetstables/2017.html. The Census Bureau does not provide more detailed information on expenditure categories, with the exception
of correctional employment, which includes jail staff as well as local community supervision officers.

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15 Henrichson, Rinaldi, and Delaney, “The Price of Jails.”
16 Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 1987” (1989), http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus87.
pdf; Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997” (2000), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/
cpus97.pdf.
17 Bennett and Lattin, “Jail Capacity Planning.”
18 Z. Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2017” (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2019), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji17.pdf.
19 C. Mai et al., “Broken Ground: Why America Keeps Building More Jails and What It Can Do Instead” (Vera Institute of Justice, 2019),
https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/broken-ground-jail-construction.pdf.
20 D.A. Kimme, G.M. Bowker, and R.G. Deichman, “Jail Design Guide” (National Institute of Corrections, 2011), https://s3.amazonaws.com/
static.nicic.gov/Library/024806.pdf.
21 Mai et al., “Broken Ground.”
22 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States” (2007 and 2017), https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr.
23 Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2017.”
24 Ibid.
25 This analysis looks at jails as a percentage of all local expenditures to adjust for differences in cost of living between states. Correlations
were tested using a Pearson statistic: crime rates and the portion spent on local jails: r = 0.09; p-value = 0.57; crime rates and the total
spent on local jails: r = 0.13; p-value = 0.41. Subsequent analyses also found no correlation between jail expenditures per state resident
and crime rates: r = -0.07; p-value = 0.66.
26 Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Annual Survey of Jails, 2017 Codebook” (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research,
2019), https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NACJD/studies/37373#.
27 W.J. Sabol and T.D. Minton, “Jail Inmates at Midyear 2007” (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2008), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/
jim07.pdf; Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2017.”
28 J. Kang-Brown and R. Subramanian, “Out of Sight: The Growth of Jails in Rural America” (Vera Institute of Justice, 2017), https://www.
vera.org/downloads/publications/out-of-sight-growth-of-jails-rural-america.pdf.
29 U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances” (2007 and 2017), https://www.census.gov/programssurveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html; Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Crime in the United States”; Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2018.”
30 U.S. Census Bureau, “About: Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances,” accessed June 30, 2020, https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/gov-finances/about.html.
31 U.S. Census Bureau, “Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual” (2006), http://www2.census.gov/govs/pubs/
classification/2006_classification_manual.pdf.
32 Ibid.
33 E. Herberman and T. Kyckelhahn, “State Government Indigent Defense Expenditures, FY 2008-2012–Updated” (Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 2015), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/sgide0812.pdf; Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President
of the United States, “Economic Report of the President” (2019), https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ERP2019.pdf.

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34 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Uniform Crime Report: Offenses Known to Law Enforcement” (2019), https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-theu.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement.pdf.
35 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Uniform Crime Report: Rape” (2019), https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/
topic-pages/rape.pdf.
36 Zeng, “Jail Inmates in 2018.”
37 National Institute of Corrections, “A Review of the Jail Function Within State Unified Corrections Systems” (National Institute of Justice,
1997), https://nicic.gov/sites/default/files/014024.pdf.
38 U.S. Census Bureau, State and Local Government Finance Historical Datasets and Tables, 2007 and 2017, accessed July 16, 2020, https://
www.census.gov/programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html.
39 Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Annual Survey of Jails, 2018 Codebook” (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research,
2020), https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NACJD/studies/37392.
40 Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Census of Jails, 2013” (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2018), https://www.
icpsr.umich.edu/web/NACJD/studies/36128.
41 Virginia Department of Education, “Virginia’s Local and Regional Jails Directory” (2016), http://www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/iep_
instruct_svcs/jail_program/jail_directory.pdf.
42 U.S. Census Bureau, “Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual.” The Census Bureau reports data from counties, cities,
municipalities, and townships; for the purposes of this study, all categories except counties are considered cities.
43 Minton, “Census of Jails: Population Changes, 1999-2013.”

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