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State’s Lock Up Rate Drops

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Sonora, CA — Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties differ vastly in regards to incarceration rates, while overall the state has seen a significant drop in the number of prisoners since peaking in 2007.

New statistics from the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) found a wide disparity among locales.  More liberal areas, like Marin and San Francisco, are less likely to lock up criminals than conservative places like Kings, Lassen and Tuolumne counties.

Overall, the state’s incarceration rate has dipped by nearly one-fifth since its peak, to 567 inmates per 100,000 people.  Calaveras County’s inmate numbers have followed that trend plummeting by 27% since 2007 from 503 to 369 in 2014. However, Tuolumne County is not following suit, instead its numbers have gone up by 2%, from 761 in 2007 to 779 in 2014.

The agency findings show some counties prefer to hold people while they await court hearings, but others let them out immediately.  Here are the BSCC’s incarceration rate figures by counties:

County Incarceration Rate 2007 Incarceration Rate 2014 Change in Incarceration Rate
Alameda 588 444 -24%
Alpine N/A N/A N/A
Amador 748 710 -5%
Butte 879 714 -19%
Calaveras 503 369 -27%
Colusa 739 691 -6%
Contra Costa 345 315 -9%
Del Norte 1077 784 -27%
El Dorado 477 421 -12%
Fresno 977 745 -24%
Glenn 1096 699 -36%
Humboldt 823 563 -32%
Imperial 569 519 -9%
Inyo 960 543 -43%
Kern 960 753 -22%
Kings 1244 1384 11%
Lake 1341 1043 -22%
Lassen 792 821 4%
Los Angeles 771 641 -17%
Madera 842 692 -18%
Marin 296 226 -24%
Mariposa 658 612 -7%
Mendocino 703 695 -1%
Merced 820 726 -11%
Modoc 834 552 -34%
Mono 486 362 -26%
Monterey 753 622 -17%
Napa 479 392 -18%
Nevada 348 343 -1%
Orange 551 448 -19%
Placer 501 368 -27%
Plumas 563 459 -18%
Riverside 718 611 -15%
Sacramento 859 766 -11%
San Benito 479 405 -15%
San Bernardino 899 702 -22%
San Diego 605 479 -21%
San Francisco 449 265 -41%
San Joaquin 795 631 -21%
San Luis Obispo 488 502 3%
San Mateo 431 314 -27%
Santa Barbara 659 509 -23%
Santa Clara 620 450 -27%
Santa Cruz 425 379 -11%
Shasta 1088 852 -22%
Sierra 528 604 14%
Siskiyou 780 606 -22%
Solano 725 460 -37%
Sonoma 509 399 -22%
Stanislaus 743 565 -24%
Sutter 853 606 -29%
Tehama 1136 883 -22%
Trinity 769 756 -2%
Tulare 1058 875 -17%
Tuolumne 761 779 2%
Ventura 520 418 -20%
Yolo 731 620 -15%
Yuba 1490 1066 -28%
California 701 567 -19%
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