New jail dashboard in Salt Lake County provides inmate population data
Aug 14, 2019, 2:45 PM | Updated: Dec 30, 2022, 11:27 am
Photo: Mary Richards, KSL NewsRadio
SALT LAKE CITY — A new tool on the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s website, a jail “dashboard,” will provide inmate population information to anyone who’s curious.
The dashboard will show statistics about who is in jail, such as inmate age, gender and other demographic information. For example, one statistic available involves past criminal activity. When KSL checked the dashboard Wednesday, 10% of the current inmate population was made up of first-time offenders, but at least one person in custody had been booked 124 times.
Photo: Mary Richards, KSL NewsRadio
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the transparency is important, both for the public and to policymakers.
“We are always looking at answering questions to the public. We want to be transparent to the public,” said Rivera. “I’m an advocate for prevention of domestic violence. So I want to know, how many people are booked into my jail on domestic violence? What cities are they from? What can I do?”
When KSL checked the jail dashboard Wednesday, our reporters could see inmates in Salt Lake County were more likely to be white, single, unemployed males than any other demographic. The jail is also releasing 17 inmates per day because of overcrowding at the 2,400-bed facility.
The jail dashboard will update every morning at 4 a.m.
