SJC Exchange Library

In response to the rapid spread of COVID-19, jails across the country implemented emergency strategies to reduce jail populations and mitigate the virus’s spread.1 New data collected from cities and counties participating in the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), a multi-year initiative funded by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and analyzed by the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance (ISLG), shows how often individuals released from jail are rebooked into jail while their criminal case is pending. The findings directly address recent claims about the role of criminal legal reform in crime trends. It is one of the few analyses exploring these questions on a national scale using in-depth, multisite data from SJC cities and counties.