BJS DOJ Report Shows 60% of Inmates are Innocent

A Bureau of Justic Statistics Department of Justice report shows that 61.1% of inmates in local and county jails are unconvicted, meaning they’ve only been charged with a crime. The remaining 38.9 percent have been convicted. The report comes from the DOJs Annual Survey of Jails for 2010. Additional statistics from the report:

• 87.7% of inmates are male
• 44.3% are White, 37.8% are black, and 15.8% are hispanic.
• Total inmate population is 809,360

Nearly 500,000 inmates incarcerated in local and county jails have only been charged with a crime and are awaiting trial. They are either too dangerous to release or cannot afford bail. This creates an enormous cost on city and financial budgets to house those who may be innocent. This has lead many local governments to  for being in jail.  Inmates are now often being charged from $10 – $60 per day in jail.

The full report can be downloaded from the .

Click here for a complete list of .