The Big House Next Door: Exploring the Overuse of Pretrial Detention in Jails

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Mass incarceration is usually analyzed from the perspective of the 1.5 million people in state and federal prisons. Less is known about local jails. And with more than 11 million annual admissions to the local jail across the U.S., it’s the big house next door. The papers in this panel explore decades of growth in the use of jail across the U.S.: how county pretrial detention affects state prison commitments, and the weakening bonds between victimization, crime, and jail admissions in the era of the crime drop and mass incarceration. This panel also includes an ethnographic look at stakes of jail size through the rebuilding of the New Orleans jail after it was partially destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing flood.

What’s at stake in the size of local jails? How does jail use relate to crime and victimization? What’s the relationship between local jails and state prisons? Can mass incarceration end where it begins, at the front door of the local jail?

Sub Unit

• Area X: Perceptions and Responses to Crime and Justice / 64: Perceptions of Justice

Individual Presentations

• Can Mass Incarceration Be Ended Where it Begins? Establishing the Relationship between Pretrial Detention and Prison Commitments - Christian Henrichson, Vera Institute of Justice

• Crime and Punishment: The Weakening Bond Between Victimization and Jail Admissions in US Metropolitan areas, 1978-2014. - Jacob Kang-Brown, Vera Institute of Justice

• Fourteen Thirty-Eight: The Stakes of Jail Size in New Orleans, Louisiana - Kaya Williams, University of Chicago

Chair

• Jacob Kang-Brown, Vera Institute of Justice

Discussant

• Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley