Jail booking log analysis for 2023
ANALYSIS
BY LEN CABRERA
As we construct the Jail Booking Log each day, we track the number of individuals booked, the number and types of charges for each individual, the demographics of the individuals booked, the types of arrests (warrant, mittimus, or other), and the agencies that made the arrests. For three years now, we’ve compiled this data and compared it to previous years. Caveats about the data and information about the limitations of our analysis can be found at the end of the article.
Bookings were up 1.7% over 2022
In 2023, there were 6,857 entries in the booking log for the county jail (i.e., one person booked on one day); the number was 6,741 in 2022, so there were 1.7% more entries in 2023. These numbers do not count the total number of charges, as a single individual can have multiple charges or appear multiple times in the log in a single day. Of the 6,857 bookings, about 40% (2,708) had multiple charges, slightly less than the 42.1% (2,840) in 2022.
Comparisons of the number and types of charges
There were 16,741 individual charges, 21.5% more than the 13,778 individual charges in 2022; however, one case, explained below, skews this number. (The 2022 number is slightly different from our report last year because we went back and re-evaluated all the 2022 bookings to match our methodology for 2023.)
These figures, both bookings and charges, do not necessarily reflect new local crimes because some are for charges coming from another county or another state. Also, some are more administrative in nature like failure to appear for a court hearing (FTA) or violations of probation (VOP). Rather than try to summarize the charges at the end of the year like we’ve done in the past, this year we tallied the local charges into 37 broad categories each day. When considering only these “local bookings,”, there were 4,451 bookings in 2022 and 4,739 in 2023 (6.5% more); there were 9,202 charges in 2022 and 12,788 charges in 2023 (39.0% more).
The 39% increase in tracked charges is driven purely by two individuals who were each booked on June 7 with 1,764 counts of “possess/receive/retain stolen credit/debit card”. If those two cases are removed, the increase in local charges that we tracked only increased by 0.5%.
Of the 6,857 total bookings, 10.8% (739) were additional charges or warrants for people already in the jail (i.e., they had “IN HOUSE” written somewhere in the log), slightly less than the 11.8% (806) in 2022. Probation violators (i.e., VOP, MVOP, or FVOP) made up 14.6% (1,001) of bookings in 2023 and 14.8% (999) in 2022. Just over 3% (219) were people who had been sentenced to serve time at the county jail rather than a state correctional facility (sentences of 364 days or less), considerably less than the 4.2% (280) of bookings in 2022 that were for sentences of less than a year.
Other than the people who had been sentenced, detainees were only accused of crimes and had not been tried or convicted when they were booked into the jail.
Comparisons of the number and demographics of individuals booked into the jail
The number of individuals booked by day varied from 5 to 47, with an average of 18.8 and median of 19. The maximum was significantly more than 2022’s maximum (34), but the overall distribution was about the same. The chart below shows the distribution of bookings by day.
In 2023, 4,968 different individuals were booked in Alachua County; it was 4,997 in 2022. (Individuals are counted multiple times in the 6,857 total bookings; we identify them by identical names and dates of birth.) Of the 4,968 individuals, a quarter (1,243) were booked more than once, 400 (8.1%) were booked three or more times, and four individuals were booked 10 or more times. 1,599 (32.2%) individuals had three or more charges filed against them when they were booked into the jail; it was 1,645 (32.9%) in 2022.
The daily booking logs are created by Alachua County Jail staff in an Excel spreadsheet that has a dropdown menu for various fields. (We usually receive it as a PDF document.) The choices for race include Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indian, and White. However, all but 114 of the 6,857 entries were categorized as either Black or White, even when the name and/or picture of the accused clearly suggested otherwise. As entered, the logs show that 58.5% of those arrested were black and 40.7% were white (compared to 57.2% and 42.4%, respectively, in 2022).
The sex field should have fewer errors since there are only two options: Male and Female. If the entry doesn’t match the picture, we correct it. (Female inmates are given blue uniforms, and males have white/green striped uniforms.) Of the 6,857 bookings, 75.0% were male and 25.0% were female, compared to 77.4% and 22.6%, respectively, in 2022.
Over half the people booked (54.2%) were between 18 and 35 years old. The chart below shows the distribution by age, which is about the same as 2022.
Types of arrests
The table below shows how each booking was classified by type. The vast majority of all bookings (91.7%) were classified as either mittimus (“on view”) or warrant. A mittimus arrest typically means that a law enforcement officer makes an arrest during or shortly after the crime is committed and files an arrest report that documents the probable cause for the arrest. (Most of the crime articles at Alachua Chronicle are written from mittimus reports, although some are written from sworn complaints.) A warrant is an arrest made by order of a judge, either for administrative violations (like failure to appear for a hearing or violation of pre-trial release conditions) or after sufficient evidence of a crime has been presented by law enforcement officers, usually by filing a sworn complaint after the crime was committed because the suspect was not apprehended at the time of the incident.
If there are multiple bookings for an single individual on the same day, we consolidate them into a single entry. If there is a mittimus line and a separate line listing another reason for the arrest (warrant, VOP, etc.), we default to mittimus as the main reason for the arrest. There were 294 mittimus bookings that also had a warrant, VOP, FTA, or out-of-county charge (there were 310 in 2022).
Agencies
Almost all warrant arrests (98.1%) in the booking log were made by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO). The table and chart below show the breakdown of the mittimus bookings by law enforcement agency.
Information and caveats about the data and this analysis
2023 was the third full year that the Alachua Chronicle published daily booking logs. You can read about our editorial decision to publish the booking logs here. Last year’s booking summary is available here with an additional article comparing crime data for 2021 and 2022 here.
The booking logs are not necessarily an accurate picture of crime in Alachua County because they only show the people arrested and booked, so they do not capture all of the crime. Also, some of the people booked are arrested for out-of-county or out-of-state warrants, so they do not necessarily reflect local crimes. When comparing to figures from other years, there is no way to know if the differences are caused by a change in crime rates or changes in enforcement policies.
The summaries we provide are based on “dirty” data. We copy and paste directly from the logs as we receive them, with only minor corrections to keep the format consistent on a given day (not necessarily from day to day). We fix obvious typos or errors when we see them. Errors with names and dates of birth are fixed using court records when possible.
Coming tomorrow: 2023 crime data by category with a comparison to 2022’s data.
Really gets the noggin jogging. Almost like there’s a pattern here.
60% of the jail bookings were black people, which is 20% of Alachua County’s population according to the US census.
60 years after Dr. King’s equality/freedom speech, affirmative action advantages, and all they have been given the stat above is just sad. 75% of police calls for service involve a bravo mike. This has and continues to occur in pretty much every city around the country, not just unique to our blue dot.
A better term is Dem-raised.
Hard to grasp it all but how many of those arrested were from the Alachua County homeless brigade? Or did I miss it?
That data is not in the jail booking log.
Partial information is available. Many articles contain this phrase: “the person’s home address is listed as Grace Market Place.” Probably from their arrest form. It would be an undercount but interesting if these could be added up.
Or even just “homeless”
The Chronicle does an excellent job of reporting facts but doesn’t have unlimited resources. With more support they might be able to further research your suggestion and the suggestions made by other readers. Please feel free to write a check and/or make a donation to help support local journalism.
Our underpaid GPD and ASO front line are definitely working harder than before. Thanks to scummy overpaid local judges and public lawyers.
Gainesville should lead America in de-lawyerizing our local courts, and increasing the powers of juries. Including at the probation and parole decision making.
Repeat offenders should be either expelled from the state, sent to Blue states (where they hate cops), or 3rd world countries (or Puerto Rico). Bad seeds have no place in America’s garden.
I wonder how many illegals? Usually DUI’s, domestic and sexual assault.
>Usually DUI’S
Actually, true. Anecdotally at least, you’ll often see DUI, Operating Vehicle Without… on the same booking. Sometimes a Hold for ICE.
So true is this statistic that I remember in the last set of DNC clown car debates, our dear president said, regarding illegals: “You only arrest for the purpose of dealing with a felony that’s committed, and I don’t consider drunk driving as a felony.” So he and his puppeteers DON’T think it’s a big deal for these illegal aliens to illegally drive on the same roads as you and your families while also under the influence of drugs and alcohol. This is the president of the United States.
I see all this…good work! How many were convicted and how many had charges dropped on all these arrests…
Great question. The Chronicle does an excellent job of reporting facts but doesn’t have unlimited resources. With more support they might be able to further research your suggestion and suggestions by other readers. Please feel free to write a check and/or make a donation to help support local journalism.
Yes; it is good work by the Alachua Chronicle. People are quick to make suggestion after suggestion, but not enough gratitude is shown for all the effort that they put into publishing well written, factually based, local stories that you wouldn’t get to read otherwise without the important work that they are doing.
This is a great overview of arrests/bookings but it seems like we see a lot of what law enforcement agencies do but not much about how our court system follows through on these charges.
How many violent offenders are offered plea deals to lesser crimes and are quickly back on our streets and reoffend? How many are let out on low bond amounts and then commit crimes while out on bail, like Jaileen Pagan (link below)?
We don’t see stats from Alachua County courthouses. They take few cases to trial, preferring to offer plea deals so their own statistics look good, meanwhile our streets aren’t safe.
People blame the cops when felons reoffend. It isn’t their fault. It’s state attorneys, judges and parole boards.
https://alachuachronicle.com/woman-on-pre-trial-release-connected-with-car-sought-in-fatal-hit-and-run/
Perhaps it’s because the poor excuse for a State Attorney doesn’t want the people of Alachua County to know what a terrible job that he is doing?
No surprises in the data. When will a government rep address the “elephant in the room”? And try to do something about it.