Jails book and confine more than 10 million people every year in the United States. People incarcerated in jails can experience overcrowding, lack of resources, exposure to violence, and deteriorating physical and mental health. In response to these harsh conditions and impacts on individuals, practitioners and policymakers have pushed to reduce the size of US jails. As part of this national movement to rethink jails, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation founded the Safety and Justice Challenge to provide support to local communities to tackle the misuse and overuse of jails. With financial and technical assistance support from the MacArthur foundation, over 50 sites, including Multnomah County, Oregon, have implemented innovative strategies to reduce their local jail populations by releasing more individuals on pretrial release and reconsidering the use of jail for new bookings.

However, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 forced SJC sites to reduce their jail populations even more to meet social distancing recommendations. These efforts led to significant reductions in jail populations across the country. At the same time and following the police killing of George Floyd, national protests swept the country protesting police brutality, systematic racism, and the criminal legal system’s role in communities. This led to heightened pressure to reduce the footprint of the criminal legal system amidst a socio-political context that was ripe for accelerating arrests and reliance on jails due to damage from the protests. This was especially true in Multnomah County, Oregon.

Funded by the Safety and Justice Challenge’s Research Consortium, JSP is leading a mixed-methods study exploring how Multnomah County selected and implemented strategies to reduce their jail population. and the impact of these strategies on jail booking for violent offenses and perceptions of violence. Combined, the lessons from Multnomah County, Oregon during this important period hold promise for sites to develop similar jail reduction strategies that not only reduce reliance on jail but improve racial equity across the criminal legal system.