History and Context
- Looking at who is in our jail can help us understand the role of detention in public safety and inform us what our needs are, both now and going forward.
- New Orleans has a history of over-incarceration: before Katrina, we jailed people at a rate five times the national average.1
- Far from making us the safest city in America, this over-use of detention has widespread consequences for impacted people who may lose their jobs, homes, and support structures.
- The data in this report will contribute to an important public conversation about how we are using our jail and how it affects safety in our community.
Note that additional detail about the data for each figure appears in the technical notes at the end of this report.