The jail population remains near historically low levels
From January 2016 to June 2017, the jail population decreased by roughly 19 percent, from 1,813 people to 1,476 people. Before 2016, the last time the jail population was under 1,500 people was in the 1970s. However, factors such as increases in arrests and changes in court processing could affect jail population reduction efforts, as suggested by the increases reported in the first quarter of 2017.
Collaborative efforts to reduce the jail population through Safety and Justice Challenge aim to bring the population down to 1,277 by May 2019.