The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced on Wednesday that it was awarding 20 U.S. jail systems with $150,000 each to reduce the number of people in prison in the country.
The grants are part of the Safety and Justice Challenge, a $75 million initiative to reduce overincarceration and to help the country create more effective and fair local justice systems, the MacArthur Foundation said in a press release.
Nationwide, jails hold 731,000 people on any given day, the foundation said, and 75% of the population are behind bars for nonviolent traffic, property, drug, or public order offenses.
As part of the challenge, the jails will develop alternatives to incarceration and ways to keep out people who don't belong behind bars. They will also try to reintegrate those who were confined to the community after their release and help them stay out of prison.
From a total of 191 applications for the challenge across 45 states, 20 jails from 16 counties, three cities, and one state-wide system were selected to receive funding. These jails collectively have a capacity of just under 100,000 people and account for 11% of the country's jailed population, the foundation said.
One of the grant's recipients is New York City, which operates Rikers Island, one of the nation's largest jail complexes. Jail populations in NYC have declined 55% from 21,688 in 1991 to under 10,000 by the end of 2014.
The funds were also awarded to Los Angeles County, the country's most populous county, which operates the world's largest jail system.
These are the 20 jurisdictions selected to receive funding:
Ada County, Idaho
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
New York City
Palm Beach County, Florida
Pennington County, South Dakota
Philadelphia
Pima County, Arizona
St. Louis County, Missouri
Shelby County, Tennessee
Spokane County, Washington
State of Connecticut