An Economic and Demographic Analysis of Urban Decarceration Trends - CANCELLED

• In Event: How Law, Politics, and Economy Shaped Mass Incarceration

Abstract

Over the last decades, local incarceration has changed dramatically. Nationally, urban counties have not lost resident population share, but their share of pretrial detention has dropped: from 45 percent in 1980 to only 25 percent in 2019. In the wake of 2020, jail populations have decreased further in the US cities, according to data collected by the Vera Institute of Justice. Yet there is wide variation among large cities, with the number of people in jail in places like San Francisco, New York City, and Washington DC down nearly 60 percent from their local peaks. While some of this change is due to criminal legal system reforms and reduced criminalization, some appears due to demographic change and displacement. This study adds to the field’s understanding of the declines by describing the shifting demographic composition and economic characteristics in places with steep reductions in incarceration, and discusses the various mechanisms that are suggested by the data.

Author

• Jacob Kang-Brown, Prison Policy Initiative