A brief on jail trends during COVID-19 from the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance, examined the impact of emergency measures to reduce jail populations in response to the pandemic in Safety and Justice Challenge sites. The report found a steep initial drop of 24 percent between February and April 2020, before climbing once again through the summer. The MacArthur-supported brief identified that jail populations are still lower than pre-COVID levels, but the decline was more dramatic for White people, increasing or perpetuating existing disparities.
