Justice Brief Recent Declines and Opportunities for Further Reductions
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Justice Brief The Jail Population Recent declines and opportunities for further reductions The City of New York Criminal Justice Mayor Bill de Blasio Elizabeth Glazer Director 1 NOTE FROM ELIZABETH GLAZER, DIRECTOR OF THE MAYOR’S OFFICE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Jails hold up a mirror to the fair functioning of society. Who goes in and how long they stay are the two barometers of the size of a jail population and reflect how the many different parts of the criminal justice system, and New Yorkers themselves, act. How many people commit offenses? What decisions do police officers make about arrest? How do prosecutors weigh the evidence? What determinations do judges make about bail and what options do they have to release or detain? Do New Yorkers serve as jurors or testify as witnesses? How quickly do courts, district attorneys and defenders move a case to conclusion? These are just some of the factors that affect the size and composition of our jail population. The complexity of reducing the jail population while ensuring the public is safe is deepened by the absence of any one “boss” of the criminal justice system and the intentional independence of various parts of government. The court system operates as a separate branch of state government. The District Attorneys—one for each county in New York City—are elected. The Police Department and the Department of Correction are Mayoral agencies. Defenders are dedicated by ethical canon to the zealous defense of their clients. Despite these complexities, New York, singularly among the nation’s large cities, has been successful in both keeping crime rates low and reducing the size of the jail population. Over the span of more than 20 years, crime has declined by 76% while the jail population has dropped by half. Over the last three years that trend has accelerated due to the partnership and focus of all the parts of the criminal justice system: as crime has gone down by 9%, the jail population has reduced by 18%, the single biggest drop since 2001. In the last three years —because of deliberate efforts to rethink policing strategy, expand alternatives to jail, and reduce case delay—fewer people are entering city jails and those who do enter are staying for less time. This has led to steep declines for some people admitted to jail: those detained on bail under $2,000, down 36%; detainees facing misdemeanor charges, down 25%; those serving city sentences, down 34%; people under 21, down 18%; and mental health service users, down 7%. And for the first time in decades, the average length of a Supreme Court case in New York City has shrunk by 18 days. How much further can we reduce the jail population? That is the question of the moment. Over the past twenty years, the number of people held on violent offenses has increased by 56%, while lower level offenses (in particular drug offenses) have oppeddr 51%. Today 91% of the pretrial population at Rikers is held on a felony charge (49% on violent felony charges), over half of the jail population is facing multiple cases and 69% are at medium or high risk of failing to appear in court, the primary basis on which a New York State judge can hold a defendant. As we look to the future, further reductions will depend upon the actions of New Yorkers themselves in reducing crime and on every part of the criminal justice system working together to ensure that we use jail as parsimoniously as possible while ensuring public safety. 2 NYC CONTEXT: DECLINING CRIME, DECLINING USE OF JAIL New York City has the lowest incarceration rate of all large U.S. cities and is focusing its efforts on bringing that number still lower. This Justice Brief shows: • what drives the size of the jail population; • how the composition of the jail population has changed over time; and • where the path lies to the sharpest reductions possible while still lowering crime. NYC JAIL USE IS THE LOWEST AMONG LARGEST U.S. CITIES 2014 INCARCERATION RATE PER 100,000 PEOPLE 810 368 309 312 294 302 281 259 263 19 4 167 Estimated 2016 rate New York City San Diego Los Angeles Chicago Houston Phoenix San Jose San Antonio Dallas Philadelphia NY CA CA IL TX AZ CA TX TX PA 3 Source: Vera Institute of Justice, “Jail incarceration rate”, 2015; available at http://trends.vera.org/incarceration-rates. NYC CONTEXT: DECLINING CRIME, DECLINING USE OF JAIL Since 1993, major crime* in New York City has declined by 76%, and the average daily jail population has declined by 50%. That trend has accelerated in the last three years, with major crime declining by 9%, and the jail population by 18%, the single biggest drop since 2001. BOTH MAJOR CRIME & THE SIZE OF THE JAIL POPULATION HAVE DROPPED DRAMATICALLY OVER TIME AVERAGE DAILY JAIL POPULATION; MAJOR CRIME IN NEW YORK CITY 9% decrease in 130,093 major crime in the last 3 years 101,610 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 13,497 18% decrease in the jail population in the last 3 years* 9,758 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 4 Sources: The City of New York, Mayor’s Management Report (New York: Mayor’s Office of Operations’ Performance Management Team, 2016); New York Police Department CompStat Unit, Year-End Report 2016. *Major crime includes: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, grand larceny automotive. **The average daily jail population has continued to decline. In 2017, the average daily population is 9400. NYC CONTEXT: DECLINING CRIME, DECLINING USE OF JAIL In the past three years, the following jail populations have shown the steepest size declines: JAIL POPULATIONS WITH STEEPEST DECLINES JAIL POPULATION REDUCTIONS OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS POPULATION DECLINE REDUCTION STRATEGY Reduce number of Misdemeanor 5600 fewer jail people who enter jail detainees admissions (-25%) (Supervised Release, bail reform, enforcement strategy) fewer jail Reduce number of City-sentenced 3900 admissions % people who enter jail population* (-34 ) (alternatives to incarceration) Reduce number of Non-violent 2530 fewer jail people who enter jail felony detainees admissions (-13%) (Supervised Release, bail reform, enforcement strategy) Reduce number of people (diversion) fewer in who enter jail 297 and Mental health custody on an reduce length of stay (enhanced programming and service users average day % (-7 ) services in custody to avoid decompensation and case delay) fewer in Reduce number of 244 Detainees with bail custody on an people who enter jail (Supervised Release, bail up to $2,000 average day % (-36 ) reform, enforcement strategy) People in custody 110 fewer in Reduce length of stay for longer custody on an (shortening case than one year average day (-8%) processing times) Adolescents 64 fewer adolescents in Reduce number of (16-to-17) and custody on an average day people who enter jail young adults (-30%); 233 fewer young (diversion) and reduce (18-to-21) adults in custody on an length of stay (shortening average day (-18%) case processing times) 5 *These are individuals who have been convicted and are serving a sentence of one year or less. Sentences of longer than one year are served in State prison. Source: Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice analysis of Department of Correction data. WHAT DRIVES THE SIZE OF THE JAIL POPULATION? People enter jail because of a series of decisions made by police, judges, prosecutors, defenders, and defendants at different points in the criminal justice system. At each decision point, an individual is either directed away from or to jail: a police officer may make an arrest or not; a prosecutor may bring charges or not; and the judge may at any time dismiss a case, set bail, remand to jail, or release with either no conditions or some conditions. ONLY A VERY SMALL PROPORTION OF POLICE ENCOUNTERS RESULT IN JAIL ADMISSION POLICE Desk ARREST ENCOUNTER appearance 674 K ticket 394K Custodial arrest Summons No formal action Disposed at taken arraignment ARRAIGNMENT 306K Released DISPOSITION Held on remand 244K Bail set, 2,100 not made 37K Case Jail Convicted dismissed 46K Acquitted Prison Key steps SENTENCING 6,400 Summons or desk request 121K Dismissal or non-incarcerative Non- incarcerative Probation Path to Jail Incarcerative 6 Sources: Annual data published by the New York Police Department, NYC Criminal Justice Agency, and NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services. WHAT DRIVES THE SIZE OF THE JAIL POPULATION? 1. CRIME TRENDS Crime drives jail: without crime there would be no jail, even though not every arrest results in a person entering jail. As crime rates have fallen, so has the number of people held in custody on any given day. The total number of the seven major crimes2 in New York City has fallen 76% since 1993, from 429,486 in 1993 to 101,610 in 2016. Arrests for offenses most likely to result in the individual being jailed have dropped dramatically since 1993: murder is down 82%, robbery 80%, and felony assaults 68%. EVERY TYPE OF MAJOR CRIME HAS DECLINED IN THE LAST 20 YEARS TOTAL NUMBER OF 7 MAJOR CRIMES IN NEW YORK CITY 120000 1993 2014 2016 100000 94% DECLINE 85% DECLINE 80000 81% DECLINE 80% DECLINE 60000 40000 68% DECLINE 20000 82% 49% DECLINE DECLINE 0 Murder Rape Robbery Felony Assault Burglary Grand Larceny Grand Larceny Auto 7 New York Police Department CompStat Unit, Year-End Report 2016. WHAT DRIVES THE SIZE OF THE JAIL POPULATION? 2. POLICE ENFORCEMENT Overall felony arrests, which around 30% of the time result in a jail admission, have fallen in recent years as police have increasingly focused on enforcement of violent crime.