While the public conversation around criminal justice reform tends to focus on big cities, rural jail populations have surged even as their urban counterparts have dropped. Since 1970, the total local jail population in the U.S. has swelled from 157,000 on any given day to our current level of 700,000, with nearly 11 million annual admissions. More recently, this steep growth has been heavily influenced by small, mostly rural counties across the U.S., despite the fact that these areas have substantially lower crimes rates.

This briefing will provide an overview of the Vera Institute of Justice’s latest research findings from our upcoming report, Out of Sight: The Growth of Jails in Rural America. It will also feature a discussion with local stakeholders and experts from Texas, South Dakota, and West Virginia about the unique issues and challenges facing their counties and regions — including over-incarceration for minor offenses, the opioid epidemic, cash bail, and mental health resources – as well as ideas and recommendations for potential solutions.

Thursday, June 15, 2017
U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, SVC 215
1:30p.m. – 3:00p.m.

**Refreshments Provided**

Experts:

Jacob Kang-Brown

Senior Research Associate, Center on Sentencing & Corrections, Vera Institute

Marc Levin

Policy Director, Right on Crime

Director, Center for Effective Justice, Texas Public Policy Foundation

Tracey Decker

Deputy State’s Attorney, Pennington County, South Dakota

Jim Johnson

Director, Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, Huntington, West Virginia

Moderated by:

Nancy Fishman

Project Director, Center on Sentencing & Corrections, Vera Institute

Please RSVP to Gabriel Shoglow: gshoglow@vera.org