On any given day, roughly 750,000 people are locked up in American jails. Indeed, one-in-three incarcerated persons are sitting in local jails, rather than state or federal prisons. These staggering numbers ensure the United States maintains the highest incarceration rates in the world. Ultimately, finding solutions to our incarceration problem may require the innovation and cost-effectiveness that only technology can provide.

In an average year, 11 million people will churn through the jail system, many of whom have not been convicted of any crime but are simply too poor to post bail. This “pre-trial” population has driven the 99 percent growth in jail populations over the past 15 years.