|
This weekly summary produced by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Coordination is a recommendation of the Jail Population Management Subcommittee supported by the work of the Safety and Justice Challenge.
 Fig. 1. Daily jail population by legal status, daily admissions, and daily releases, Sunday, 10 March – Saturday, 16 March 2024
For the week ending Saturday, 16 March 2024, the average daily jail population was 1,179 people (standard dev. = 5.87), the same as last week’s average daily jail population.
|
On average, 92% of people detained in the jail last week were in custody for open matters. 56% of the average daily population was detained with a violent offense as their most serious charge at booking.
Not shown in this graphic are the 91 people, on average, who were detained last week on closed matters. Out of the average daily population of 1,179 people, 5%, on average, had been sentenced to a DOC facility, and 2%, to the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System.
|
Fig. 2. Average daily jail population of people with open matters by most serious charge at admission, 10 - 16 March 2024
Note that, on average, less than 1% of the average daily population included people with misdemeanor-level sex offenses and weapons charges. No one was in custody last week with misdemeanor drug offenses as the most serious charge at booking. On average, 4 people were detained last week with missing/incomplete charge information.
 |
|
On average, Black people made up nearly 88% of the average jail population last week. In 2021 (the last year for which we have available Census data), Black people comprised 58% of the estimated parish population. Thus, Black people are overrepresented in our average daily population.
|
Fig. 3. Average daily jail population by race/ethnicity, 10 - 16 March 2024
Note that, on average, one person of “other” or “unknown” race was detained last week.
179 people were booked into the jail between Sunday, 10 March and Saturday, 16 March 2024, an increase of nearly 18% from last week, when 152 people were admitted to the jail.
 Fig. 4. Jail Admissions by most serious charge at booking and hold status, week ending 16 March 2024
92 people (51% of those booked last week) had a felony as the most serious charge at admission. 45 people (27%) were admitted to the jail with a state misdemeanor as the most serious charge, an increase of 5 percentage points from last week, when 22% of the 152 admissions were people with state misdemeanors as the most serious charge.
|
180 people were released from jail custody between 10 March and 16 March 2024, an increase of 13% from last week’s 159 releases.
171 people – 95% of those released last week – left jail custody before the final disposition of their cases, and 9 people were released upon or after their cases’ final disposition. On average, people who were released from jail before the final disposition of their case stayed in custody for 44 days (median = 1 day; minimum = less than one day; maximum = 2617 days; standard dev. = 209.5). The 9 people who were released after their cases’ final disposition stayed in custody an average of 542 days (median = 395 days; minimum = 1 days; maximum = 1869 days; standard dev. = 606.0).
The weekly jail turnover rate for the week ending 16 March 2024 was 30%, an increase of 4 percentage points from last week’s rate. A measure developed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the jail turnover rate tells us something about the flow of people into and out of the jail. On average, about 1 out of 4 people detained in the jail last week had been newly admitted or were very soon to be released.
In 2022 (the most recent year for which we have published data), the average weekly turnover rate for jails of our size was 31% (see this BJS report for more details.)
Generally, higher turnover rates indicate larger numbers of jail admissions and releases, relative to the average daily population.
|
The average length of stay was 69 days for the 180 people who were released from jail custody on the week ending 16 March 2024 (min = < 1 day; max = 2,617 days; standard dev. = 263.7).
Figure 5. Length of jail stay for people released 10 - 16 March 2024, N = 180
The median length of stay was 2 days for all released people, a decrease of 2 days from last week’s median.
53%, or 95 people, were released after staying in jail for two days or fewer. The 85 people who were released after 2 or more days in jail stayed in jail an average of 146 days (median = 27 days; standard dev. = 371.1).
We calculate the average daily jail population as the mean of all daily counts during the week.
We calculate length of stay as the difference, in days, between booking date and release date, for people released from the jail during the week.
We determine the most serious charge at booking using a hierarchy of charges, with all felonies being more serious than all misdemeanors.
For more definitions of the terms used in this report, please see our glossary.
As a stakeholder, have you noticed something and wondered if data exists to confirm your observations? At OCJC, we are interested in your observations and data questions. Please reach out to Adrienne Tobler at adrienne.tobler@nola.gov to further discuss the possibility of exploring your questions.
For technical questions, contact Theresa McKinney at theresa.mckinney@nola.gov.
|
|
