Identifying overlooked data
The issue of overincarceration has received a lot of attention recently, with most of the focus directed toward state and federal prison systems. However, local jails are frequently neglected in this discourse. It is crucial to understand that local jails play a significant role in the larger problem of mass incarceration, as they hold a disproportionate number of pretrial detainees and individuals serving shorter sentences.
Aggregating local jail records
In 2019, the NYU Public Safety Lab began collecting daily individual-level jail records from more than 1,000 publicly available jail rosters in the United States as part of its Jail Data Initiative. This website provides interactive tools to explore these records, as well as access to individual jail rosters, bookings and associated court records. It also offers facility profile reports with summary information derived from those rosters.
Individual-level and bulk data access
Our database comprises comprehensive booking records, including the identities of arresting officers, court documents, information on people experiencing homelessness, and details on immigration detention. To gain access to individual-level records, submit a request by completing our Data Use Agreement. This agreement outlines the proper use and handling of the sensitive information contained within the database.
Visualizing trends with our dashboard
Our dashboard allows users to visualize daily facility-level data, and to request permission to access a restricted database containing daily individual-level data. On the dashboard you will find overall jail population trends that can be filtered by the demographics of those incarcerated, by geography and by timeframe. You can also generate comparisons between segments. For additional information, please contact us at questions@jaildatainitiative.org.