By the middle of last year, the number of people in jails nationwide was at its lowest point in more than two decades. But in most places, the decrease didn’t last long: From mid-2020 to March 2021, the number of people in jails climbed back up again
, where people serve sentences of one year or more, the jail population is in constant churn as people are arrested, released on bond or take plea deals and leave.
“In the first few months, really almost all we did was releases,” said Florida Circuit Criminal Court Judge Nushin Sayfie in Miami-Dade County. But when he got to the Lowndes County Jail to serve his time last August, he said, they turned him away. As a precaution against the virus, they were only accepting people charged with violent crimes. “I don’t know how to quantify how good it feels to not have to go to jail,” Fagan said.
And it worked. By June of last year, the Palm Beach County Jail had gone from about 1,750 people before the pandemic to 1,500, according to the data compiled by the Vera Institute. In many places, though, the push to clear out jails and rethink incarceration has been short-lived. Momentum for long-lasting change is wavering in the face of a rise in crime — including shootings and other violence — after several years at or near historic lows. Police leaders and union officials in places like New York City and Philadelphia have blamed policies freeing people from jail, though there is little evidence that people on release are behind the surge of new crimes.
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