Facilities and Staffing
The number of jails across the country has remained relatively steady since 1983, rising from 3,338 in that year to 3,365 in 2002. There are 3,043 counties in the United States. The number of jails is roughly one per county plus additional jails in large urban areas. However, while the total facilities increased by just twenty-seven jails between 1983 and 2002, their capacity to house offenders has increased significantly. In 1983 rated capacity of the nation's jails was 261,556 or about seventy-eight beds per jail on average. In 2003 capacity had increased to 736,471. Jails, therefore, have grown in size if not significantly in number. The utilization of available jail capacity increased from 85% occupancy in 1983 to 101% crowding in 1988. Capacity growth then began, reflected in decreasing jail utilization: 97% of capacity was being used in 1993, 93% in 1999. Ninety-four percent of capacity was being used in 2003, but it had been as low as 90% in 2001.
The nation's publicly operated local jails employed 207,600 people in 1999, up from 64,560 in 1983, a 222% increase, more than matching the 171% increase in jail inmates, which stood in 1999 at 605,943 inmates, up from 223,551. In 1999 there was a staff member present for every 2.9 prisoners and a correctional officer for every 4.3 prisoners. Staff and guards had more inmates to administer in 1983 when there were 3.5 inmates per member of staff and 5.0 per correctional officer.
Two-thirds of jail staff members in 1999 were male; 66% of staffers were white, 24% were African-American, 8% were Hispanic, and 2% were of other races. Eighty-nine percent of inmates in 1999 were male; 41% of inmates were white, 42% African-American, 15% Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race), and 2% of other races. In the data presented here, African-Americans and whites are non-Hispanics.
Privately Operated Jails
In 1993 there were seventeen privately operating jails. Six years later, the number had increased to forty-seven jails, with 16,656 offenders. Of these, 13,814 were inmates in the private jails and 2,842 were supervised but not confined. On average, private jails were bigger than those operated by public agencies. Excluding offenders supervised but not confined, the average population of the forty-seven private jails in 1999 was 294 inmates. Most inmates were male, as in the public jails, 89%. The racial composition was somewhat different from public facilities: whites were 31.7%, African-Americans 38%, Hispanics 16%, and other races 14.2% of the population. Among private jail staff, women accounted for nearly half (46.3% of total staff, 40.8% of correctional officers). Private jail staffs supervised 3.3 inmates per person, a somewhat higher workload than in publicly run jails (2.9 inmates per staff). Private correctional officers supervised 5.3 inmates each, one more than publicly employed guards (4.3).
Federal Jails
While the emergence of private jails is often mentioned in the press, less known is the fact that the federal government operates jails of its own—in addition to the much better known federal penitentiaries—and federal jails have also grown in number. The government increased such facilities from seven in 1993 to eleven in 1999. In 1999 they held nearly as many inmates as private jails—11,209, up from 5,899 in 1993, a near doubling of the federal jail population. Federal jail inmates were overwhelmingly male (93%). The majority, 63%, were white; 32% were African-American, and 5% were of all other races. Federal jail staff was 74.5% male. The total employee-to-inmate ratio in 1999 was 3.6, and each correctional officer supervised 6.7 inmates. Federal jails were crowded; they operated 39% above rated capacity—but the 1999 results were better than in 1993 when federal jails were 55% above capacity.
User Comments Add a comment…