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"Jails too often serve as warehouses for those too poor to
post bail, nonviolent offenders, or people with mental illness,"
said Julia Stasch, MacArthur's president, in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, the Vera Institute of Justice released a
report entitled, "Incarceration's Front Door: The Misuse of
Jails in America," which said there are roughly 12 million
admissions to the country's 3,000 jails annually, with some
731,000 people in jail any given day.
Some 75 percent of people in U.S. jails are there for nonviolent
offenses like traffic, drug and public order violations, the
report said, adding that people of color are affected
disproportionately. And local jurisdictions spend $22.2 billion
a year running the detention centers, the report said.
The MacArthur initiative will award $150,000 to 20 projects
aimed at reducing jail populations at the state, city, county,
judicial district or county level for systems with 50 beds or
more, the foundation said. Then 10 participants will receive as
much as $2 million over two years to implement the plans.
"For too long America has incarcerated too many people
unnecessarily, spending too much money without improving public
safety," Stasch said.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco)
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