Changes in North Carolina Jail Populations During COVID-19

We have issued a series of reports on North Carolina state and county-level jail occupancy rates, including one in July 2020 focusing on changes in jail occupancy rates during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic (here, here and here). In this report, we switch our reporting metric and focus on changes in occupants as opposed to occupancy rates. We also provide a new tool for stakeholders to examine changes in county jail populations during the COVID-19 period. This report includes data through July 2020. Please refer to our prior reports for information on data sources and calculations. State Level Data As shown in Figure 1 below, in January and February 2020, jails statewide were detaining over 20,000 people. These numbers were higher than those for the same months in 2019. In March 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, jail detentions statewide dropped to 19,318. By April 2020, statewide jail detentions had dropped to 15,215, and have continued to fall, albeit at a slower rate, monthly through July 2020. Statewide detention rates for April, May, June, and July 2020 were below detention rates for the same months in 2019. Figure 1. Number of individuals detained in jail statewide—2019 and 2020 Note: The figure above shows a significant decline in the statewide jail population in March 2019. However, in March 2019 a large number of facilities—40 of 114—did not report jail data. As a result, the March 2019 figure is artificially low. County Level Data As we have seen in prior [...]