Local Jails in U.S. Grow More Crowded

Although space in local jails rose 44% nationally between 1983 and 1988, an even larger surge in inmates cut average space for each prisoner by 6%, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Sunday.

The increased jail space was outstripped by a 54% increase in inmates, leaving nearly 10% of the nation’s 3,316 locally run jails under court orders to relieve crowding.

Inmates in local jails in California averaged 43 square feet of space, compared to the 60 square feet adopted as a standard by the American Correctional Assn. California was one of nine states below the national average of 50.9 square feet per inmate, according to the bureau, an arm of the Justice Department. California also registered the highest average of inmates per jail housing unit--5.2.

“The management of jail facilities becomes more difficult when more inmates are living in high density situations,” the bureau noted in its report. “Maintaining high population densities in large segments of a jail can affect routine activities such as food service, visitation, recreation, medical care and sick call, inmate property management and inmates’ movements to and from court or consultations with attorneys.”

From 1983--the year of the last previous jail census--to 1988, the number of jail inmates increased from 223,551 to 343,569.