Weekly News Brief

Jail Inmate Population Declines, BJS Releases Statistical Tables Report on Jail Inmates at Midyear 2010 - The U.S. local jail inmate population has declined for the second consecutive year, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The jail population declined by 2.4 percent in the 12 months ending June 30, 2010. The number of inmates dropped from 767,434 to 748,728. This follows a 2.3 percent decline in 2009 and is the second time the jail population has declined since BJS began the Annual Survey of Jails in 1982. In addition, the jail incarceration rate in 2010 declined to 242 jail inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents - the lowest rate since 2003, when the rate was 238.

Upcoming Event - The National Institute of Justice's Research for the Real World seminar series presents Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better: Lessons from Community Courts Thursday, April 21, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, 810 7th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Greg Berman, Director of the Center for Court Innovation, will offer lessons from several reformation efforts in criminal justice settings. In particular, he will focus on the development of community courts ? experimental court projects attempting to reduce both crime and incarceration in dozens of cities across the U.S. and around the world. For more information, contact Yolanda Curtis at [email protected] or 202-305-2554.

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