DEMAND 2
TOWARDS FREEDOM
Sheriffs Should Reduce Jail Populations and Oppose Jail Expansions
The Issue
Jails are dangerous. Every year, hundreds of people die in U.S. jails from overdoses, suicides, neglect, and abuse. Many jails are also overcrowded—the people inside outnumber the available beds and cells. When this happens, conditions quickly deteriorate. People may end up sleeping on the floor, losing exercise or outdoor time, or experiencing more illness and violence.
Jails are largely filled with people who have not been convicted of a crime. But they are subjected to the same conditions as those who are serving a sentence of incarceration—and those conditions are usually poor. When people are held pretrial, they can lose employment, housing, and even custody of their children. Even a few days in jail can completely destabilize someone’s life.
Incarceration should be a last resort, but it is almost universally used as a catch-all response to societal problems. As long as we see jails as a solution, we will never truly solve the underlying problems people struggle with.
Most of the people incarcerated in our country's jails are being held pretrial, presumed innocent but punished nonetheless with incarceration. Many of those people also ended up in jail because of a health or poverty-related issues—drug use, untreated mental illness, or homelessness. None of these people should be in a jail.
Sheriffs have the power and influence to decrease jail populations and help ensure that people who should not be in jail do not arrive there or stay there. Sheriffs can play both direct and indirect roles in reducing the number of people incarcerated inside jails and ensuring that counties do not seek to expand their incarceration capacity.
Why It Matters
In the beginning weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, jails across the country significantly decreased their populations to prevent the virus’s spread. Local officials focused both on releasing those who were already incarcerated and ensuring that fewer people were booked into the jail.
For example, the Cuyahoga County jail was already overcrowded when the pandemic hit, holding nearly 2,000 people despite a 1765-bed capacity. County officials met and implemented a series of actions, including a directive to local police departments to consider summons instead of arrests for people who did not pose a threat to public safety. Bookings decreased from 85 to 30 per day.
The swift actions that took place to respond to the pandemic show that jails can feasibly decrease jail populations without any impact on public safety.
What’s Possible
Sheriffs should use their power under state and local laws to reduce jail populations.
Though the extent of a sheriff's power will vary across jurisdictions, the vast majority will have some mechanism by which they can control the number of people inside the jail. Some may be able to issue citations in lieu of booking people after an arrest. Others may have the power to subsequently release people, as the sheriff in Muscogee County, Georgia did through its pretrial release program.
Sheriffs can also advocate for less restrictive confinement and support treatment centers and mental health facilities in lieu of jail cells.
Sheriffs should regularly communicate and collaborate with local stakeholders to encourage the release of people held pretrial.
Judges set bail but may not know for weeks whether that person was able to pay for their release. Sheriffs can inform judges regularly about the jail population, the number of people who are incarcerated pretrial, and how long they have been waiting in the jail.
The Davidson County Sheriff established a text reminder program for people awaiting trial to help ensure people show up to their court dates without being held pretrial.
Sheriffs should oppose the construction of new jails or expansion of existing jails.
New jails are rarely smaller. The construction of a new jail will likely only increase the capacity of the county to incarcerate more people, which in turn will make it more likely the county will continue to rely on incarceration to address unmet mental health, drug treatment, or housing needs. Instead of supporting a newer or bigger jail, sheriffs should advocate for alternatives to incarceration and continue to use whatever power they have to divert and release people from the jail.
How We Get There
Example Policy
Partner Highlights
Resources
Organizations Leading the Way
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