Jails are locally-operated correctional facilities that confine persons before or after adjudication. Inmates sentenced to jail usually have a sentence of a year or less, but jails also incarcerate persons in a wide variety of other categories.

Jail facilities

• At midyear 2007, 780,581 inmates were held in the nation's local jails, up from 766,010 at midyear 2006.
• In 2007, jails reported adding 15,502 beds during the previous 12 months, bringing the total rated capacity to 813,502.
• 96% of the rated capacity was occupied at midyear 2007.
• On June 29, 2007 local jails were operating 4% below their rated capacity.
• In Indian country on June 30, 2004, 68 facilities were operating with the capacity to hold 2,162 persons. These jails held 1,745 inmates and were operating at 81% of their capacity at midyear 2004.

Jail populations

• From 1995 to 2007, the number of jail inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents rose from 193 to 259.
• From midyear 2006 to midyear 2007, the 12-month increase of 1.9% in the jail population was less than the average annual increase of 3.3% since 2000.

Information Provided by the Bureau of Justice Statistics