Overcrowding and the Jail Budget - Addressing Dilemmas of Population Control (From Sneaking Inmates Down the Alley, P 85-100, 1986, David B Kalinich and John Klofas, eds. - See NCJ-103688)

• NCJ Number: 103694
• Author(s): D Kalinich
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines the dynamics of jail overcrowding and proposes an accountability system that will motivate criminal justice agencies to reform procedures and decisionmaking so as to reduce jail populations.

Abstract

Jail administrators do not make the decisions that create jail populations. They are left with the difficult task of managing overcrowded facilities produced by decisions in other criminal justice components, notably decisions that impede pretrial release, lengthen the pretrial detention period, and give low priority to noncustodial dispositions. Decisionmakers who create overcrowded jails generally have no incentive to change their decisionmaking patterns because they are not directly affected by the consequences of their decision. A 'best case' scenario would draw the cost of jail incarceration from the budgets of those criminal justice agencies responsible for the number of jail admissions. Since this scenario is not practical for a number of reasons, a realistic alternative would be to place a dollar amount on each court's decision that places a person in jail. These data would show which courts (including their subagencies) are contributing most to incarceration costs. A prison advisory committee would review these figures annually and bring them to the courts' attention, encouraging them to make procedural changes that will reduce incarceration costs. 19 references.