San Diego jail populations plummeted during the pandemic. It didn't impact crime, researchers say

In spring of 2020, California conducted an experiment. The COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and jails — with their close confines and questionable sanitary conditions — were seen as potentially lethal breeding grounds for the novel coronavirus. At the urging of criminal justice advocates and defense lawyers, county officials began releasing some inmates early and refusing to book people for some crimes. Then state judicial officials ordered that bail be set at zero for nearly all misdemeanor crimes and some felonies. The result? Fewer arrestees were sent to jail, and inmate populations plummeted....