KY jails may be shrinking, but nationwide rural counties increase incarceration
New data show many smaller, rural counties across the country are disproportionately jailing people for low-level offenses.
The findings come from an analysis of jail-offenses data by the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative.
Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist for the organization, said small towns and counties pour a huge amount of public resources into arrests for minor offenses. She added that those same counties are doubling down on policing and prosecution policies.
“Incarceration is a costly business,” she said. “It is extremely destabilizing for people who go to jail, and it may or may not actually do anything to improve public safety.”
The Kentucky Association of Counties says the state isn’t following this trend. According to the group, there are three fewer county jails in Kentucky than in 2020. Association data show (in Oct. 2024) the statewide weekly average population in county jails was 19,815. People in jail on county charges – not state or federal – numbered almost 10,400.
So, the population in Kentucky county jails has decreased by about 11% statewide since 2019.
Across the country, Bertram said, most counties see jails as a place to hold people charged with low-level offenses or misdemeanors.
“Two-thirds of people are being held on charges that did not involve physical violence against another person,” she said.
Federal data from 2023 indicates 20% of people in jails were held for misdemeanors. According to the Jail Data Initiative, the actual number of people in jails that year for nonviolent offenses was closer to 35%.
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