Most People Jailed In NYC Have Been Locked Up Before, Report Says

NEW YORK, NY — Most people who went to jail in New York City last year were serving at least their second stint behind bars, a new report says. About 70 percent of the 43,345 people who entered city jails in 2017 had been locked up at least one other time since 2008, according to an Independent Budget Office analysis published Tuesday.

More than 10,000 of them had been held more than five other times in that 10-year period, the report says. And over 2,800 were held at least three times last year alone.

Close to 9 percent — or nearly 3,800 people — had been locked up more than 10 times in that period and about 800 had been jailed more than 20 times, the report says.

The numbers show a high rate of recidivism among the city's jail population, which officials have sought to shrink with the goal of closing the dilapidated and dangerous Rikers Island complex.

The city's monthly jail population fell below 9,000 in December for the first time in 35 years. City officials plan to close the first of Rikers Island's nine jails by this summer.

(Lead image: Rikers Island is seen covered in snow in January 2018. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)