Jails Stuffed To Capacity In Many U.S. Counties
This chart shows jail statistics from 2008 in the 50 U.S. counties with the largest numbers of inmates. More than half of the counties on this list had jails operating at 95 percent capacity or greater. In 16 counties, jails were overcrowded — that is, they were occupied at more than 100 percent capacity. In Florida, two counties — Lee and Polk — had jails operating at as much as 131 percent capacity.
Note: Counties ranked by inmate population density
| County | Average Daily Jail Population |
Percent Of Capacity |
County Population |
Inmates Per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | 13,849 | 71 | 1,634,795 | 847 |
| Orleans Parish, La. | 2,613 | 90 | 311,853 | 838 |
| Shelby County, Tenn. | 5,765 | 89 | 906,825 | 636 |
| Baltimore City | 4,010 | 116 | 636,919 | 630 |
| Philadelphia City | 8,811 | 102 | 1,447,395 | 609 |
| Davidson County, Tenn. | 3,528 | 107 | 626,144 | 563 |
| District of Columbia | 3,012 | 86 | 591,833 | 509 |
| Polk County, Fla. | 2,456 | 131 | 580,594 | 423 |
| Gwinnett County, Ga. | 3,311 | 100 | 789,499 | 419 |
| Bernalillo County, N.M. | 2,607 | 116 | 635,139 | 410 |
| Orange County, Fla. | 4,294 | 99 | 1,072,801 | 400 |
| Denver County, Colo. | 2,380 | 128 | 598,707 | 398 |
| DeKalb County, Ga. | 2,906 | 93 | 739,956 | 393 |
| Pinellas County, Fla. | 3,559 | 83 | 910,260 | 391 |
| Lee County, Fla. | 2,313 | 131 | 593,136 | 390 |
| Cobb County, Ga. | 2,579 | 96 | 698,158 | 369 |
| Hillsborough County, Fla. | 3,985 | 92 | 1,180,784 | 337 |
| Fresno County, Calif. | 3,049 | 81 | 909,153 | 335 |
| Suffolk County, Mass. | 2,445 | 83 | 732,684 | 334 |
| Sacramento County, Calif. | 4,563 | 90 | 1,394,154 | 327 |
| Milwaukee County, Wis. | 3,037 | 101 | 953,328 | 319 |
| Broward County, Fla. | 5,500 | 96 | 1,751,234 | 314 |
| El Paso County, Texas | 2,226 | 96 | 742,062 | 300 |
| Alameda County, Calif. | 4,371 | 102 | 1,474,368 | 296 |
| Kern County, Calif. | 2,372 | 88 | 800,458 | 296 |
| Miami-Dade County | 7,050 | 121 | 2,398,245 | 294 |
| Essex County, N.J. | 2,260 | 98 | 770,675 | 293 |
| Mecklenburg County, N.C. | 2,610 | 99 | 890,515 | 293 |
| San Bernardino County, Calif. | 5,593 | 94 | 2,015,355 | 278 |
| Fulton County, Ga. | 2,789 | 91 | 1,014,932 | 275 |
| Allegheny County, Pa. | 3,246 | 95 | 1,215,103 | 267 |
| Travis County, Texas | 2,662 | 81 | 998,543 | 267 |
| Marion County, Ind. | 2,344 | 88 | 880,380 | 266 |
| Dallas County, Texas | 6,385 | 82 | 2,412,827 | 265 |
| Santa Clara County, Calif. | 4,660 | 122 | 1,764,499 | 264 |
| Harris County, Texas | 10,000 | 107 | 3,984,349 | 251 |
| Bexar County, Texas | 4,062 | 93 | 1,622,899 | 250 |
| Maricopa County, Ariz. | 9,265 | 102 | 3,954,598 | 234 |
| Palm Beach County, Fla. | 2,900 | 89 | 1,265,293 | 229 |
| Franklin County, Ohio | 2,457 | 100 | 1,129,067 | 218 |
| Los Angeles County | 19,836 | 87 | 9,862,049 | 201 |
| Tarrant County, Texas | 3,500 | 82 | 1,750,091 | 200 |
| Orange County, Calif. | 6,000 | 89 | 3,010,759 | 199 |
| Cook County, Ill. | 9,900 | 98 | 5,294,664 | 187 |
| San Diego County | 5,363 | 109 | 3,001,072 | 179 |
| Riverside County, Calif. | 3,530 | 115 | 2,100,516 | 168 |
| Clark County, Nev. | 3,115 | 106 | 1,865,746 | 167 |
| King County, Wash. | 2,657 | 80 | 1,875,519 | 142 |
| Wayne County, Mich. | 2,336 | 87 | 1,949,929 | 120 |
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