NEW YORK – The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is giving 20 jails of all sizes $150,000 each to come up with ways to reduce the number of people unnecessarily behind bars.
MacArthur President Julia Stasch says the money comes from $75 million the Chicago-based charitable group has pledged to give over five years to bring more fairness to the criminal justice system. About 12 million people annually pass through roughly 3,000 jails nationwide. Many are nonviolent offenders, mentally ill and people who can't afford bail.
Here are the jail systems that received planning grants in alphabetical order:
Ada County, Indiana
Charleston County, South Carolina
Cook County, Illinois
Harris County, Texas
Los Angeles County, California
Lucas County, Ohio
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Mesa County, Colorado
Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Multnomah County, Oregon
New Orleans, Louisiana
New York City, New York
Palm Beach County, Florida
Pennington County, South Dakota
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pima County, Arizona
St. Louis County, Missouri
Shelby County, Tennessee
Spokane County, Washington
State of Connecticut
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