BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Local jail inmates and jail facilities
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BJS collects information on jail inmates and jail facilities from administrative records maintained by local jurisdictions and through periodic personal interviews with inmates held in local jails (See Jail Data Collections and Surveys for more information). Jails are correctional facilities that confine persons before or after adjudication and are usually operated by local law enforcement authorities.  Jail sentences are usually for 1 year or less.  Jails also—

  • receive individuals pending arraignment and hold those awaiting trial, conviction, or sentencing
  • remit probation, parole, and bail-bond violators and absconders
  • temporarily detain juveniles pending transfer to juvenile authorities
  • hold mentally ill persons pending transfer to appropriate mental health facilities
  • hold individuals for the military, for protective custody, for contempt, and for the courts as witnesses
  • release inmates to the community upon completion of sentence
  • transfer inmates to federal, state, or other authorities
  • house inmates for federal, state, or other authorities because of crowding of their facilities
  • sometimes operate community-based programs as alternatives to incarceration.

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Terms & Definitions

Incarcerated population Incarcerated population is the population of inmates confined in a prison or a jail. This may also include halfway-houses, bootcamps, weekend programs, and other entities in which individuals are locked up overnight.
 
Indian country jails Indian country adult and juvenile detention centers, jails, and other correctional facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), U.S. Department of the Interior.
 
Jail inmates Jail inmates are offenders confined in short-term facilities that are usually administered by a local law enforcement agency and that are intended for adults but sometimes hold juveniles before or after adjudication. Jail inmates usually have a sentence of less than 1 year or are being held pending a trial, awaiting sentencing, or awaiting transfer to other facilities after a conviction.
 
Prison Compared to jail facilities, prisons are longer-term facilities owned by a state or by the Federal Government. Prisons typically hold felons and persons with sentences of more than a year; however, the sentence length may vary by state. Six states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Delaware, Alaska, and Hawaii) have an integrated correctional system that combines jails and prisons. There are a small number of private prisons, facilities that are run by private prison corporations whose services and beds are contracted out by state or federal governments.
 
Rated capacity The number of beds or inmates assigned by a rating official to institutions within the jurisdiction.
 
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