Needless jail stays
In the first quarter of 2016, a total of 3,942 people were released from OPP to the community. This figure groups people who were released by the reason for their release and captures the total number of days each group spent in jail. This is an essential measure to understand how we are using jail beds. Of the people released to the community after a stay in OPP, two groups represented the largest number of days in jail: 1) people who were released as soon as their cases were resolved (either because they were sentenced to probation or to time-served or because their cases were refused for prosecution) and who spent an average of 47 days per person in jail before release; and 2) people who posted bond after spending an average of nine days in jail before being released. If people who pose little risk were released pretrial without the delays associated with financial bonds, thousands of days in jail could be safely avoided.
