Key Facts

Total Number of People in County Jails and State Prisons, 2015
Explore your state's use of local jails and state prisons.

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152 Dead in Los Angeles Jails Since Start of 2023

Twenty-nine people have died in county jails so far this year.

How are people dying?It typically takes months for Los Angeles County to publicly issue causes of death for people who have died in LA County jails. And even once autopsy reports are finalized, they don’t tell the whole story. When the coroner rules that a death is the result of “natural causes,” jail conditions can still be to blame. Researchers h ...

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September 16, 2026
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Meet the High School Students Reimagining Justice at Vera

Through research, mentorship, and hands-on learning, Vera’s Justice Scholars are exploring the criminal justice system—and discovering their own power to change it.

The U.S. criminal justice system is vast and opaque; imagining new ways of doing things­—and knowing where to start­—can be a daunting task. The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera)’s Justice Scholars program is a paid summer internship for rising high school juniors and seniors interested in the history of policing, prosecution, and corrections. But t ...

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September 11, 2026
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