US Counties With the Highest Pretrial Share of the Jail Population

2,744 US counties ranked by pretrial share of the jail population, from highest to lowest. First are Clay County, IL (100%), Crawford County, IL (100%) and Effingham County, IL (100%). The middle one of the 2,744 has 64.5%.

What this measures

Of everyone in the county's jails, the percentage held before trial, not after being found guilty. The middle county is 64.5%, so the typical county jail mostly holds people not yet convicted of the charge they are held on. It is calculated here as people held before trial divided by all people in jail. The publisher's rate column is not a rate per resident, so it is not used. Source: .

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 highest counties

More on pretrial share of the jail population

• US Counties With the Lowest Pretrial Share of the Jail Population
• Pretrial share of the jail population by US county: map by year and what it goes with

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.