Look Up Burlington County Jail Population

How to Look Up Burlington County Jail Population Data

Start with the source closest to the jail itself. The Burlington County Department of Corrections runs the official corrections page, and it also runs the public inmate search. Those two pages are where county-level custody facts live. The corrections page describes the jail and its mission. The inmate search page lists people held in custody at the time you load it. Neither one posts a daily population total, a rated capacity, or a chart of past counts. That gap is real, and it is the first thing to know.

So where does that leave you? Read what the official pages actually publish, then fill the rest with reputable outside data that is clearly labeled. The county corrections page is the anchor for local facts. For numbers the county does not post, three respected groups track jail and prison data at the state and national level. Each updates on its own schedule, and each measures slightly different things, so check the date and the definition before you quote a figure.

• The Burlington County corrections page, for the jail and its contact lines.
• The public inmate roster, for who is in custody right now.
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics, for national jail and prison counts.
• The Vera Institute, for county-level incarceration trends.
• The Prison Policy Initiative, for a New Jersey state profile.

You can reach the county corrections page at co.burlington.nj.us. Treat the roster as a live snapshot, not a running tally. To check one person rather than a count, use the inmate records page instead.

Burlington County Jail Capacity Overview

Capacity is the number of beds a jail is rated to hold. It matters because it tells you whether a facility is full, crowded, or has room. For Burlington County, the official sources reviewed do not state a rated capacity for the county jail. The corrections page describes the jail's mission and lists its address and phone, but it does not give a bed count. That number is not published in the official sources reviewed, and it should not be guessed from unofficial jail-directory sites, because those figures are often stale or wrong.

What is confirmed is the facility itself. The county operates one main jail under the Department of Corrections, listed on the roster as the Burlington County Detention Center. Some roster rows show a second location, Atlantic County, which points to inter-county custody arrangements rather than a second Burlington jail. The table below lays out what the official sources do and do not provide for each.

Note: the Atlantic County rows mean some Burlington detainees are held there under inter-county arrangements, not that Burlington runs a jail in Atlantic County.

Average Daily Population in the County

Average daily population, or ADP, is the mean number of people held in a jail across a set period, often a month or a year. It is the standard way to measure how busy a jail is, because a single-day count can swing high or low. Burlington County's official pages reviewed do not publish an ADP figure for the county jail. There is no monthly or yearly average posted on the corrections page or the roster.

It is tempting to count the roster and call that the population. Do not. The public inmate search showed at least three pages of current detainee results on the inspection date, but a live roster count is not the same as ADP. A roster is a snapshot of one moment. People are booked and released every day, so the list you see at noon may differ from the list at midnight. A true ADP would average many such moments, which the county does not post.

If you need a real local average, the place to look is official county budget documents, annual reports, or county board agendas, since those sometimes carry jail cost, staffing, and population figures. Those were not located among the sources reviewed here. Until one surfaces, treat any single-day roster total as just that, a single day.

Demographic Breakdown of the Jail Population

A demographic breakdown splits a jail population by traits such as age, sex, or race. Many large systems post this kind of table. Burlington County's official sources reviewed do not. There is no county demographic breakdown of the jail population on the corrections page or the roster, and none should be invented or pulled from an unofficial directory.

The public roster does not help here either. Its visible result columns are Facility, Bail Amount, and Estimated Release Date. It does not group people by age, sex, or race, and it does not total anything. So a Burlington-specific demographic chart simply is not available from the official sources reviewed.

For demographic context, the better path is statewide and national data, covered further down this page. Those groups break incarceration down by race and other traits at the state level. Just remember the label: a New Jersey statewide breakdown is not a Burlington County breakdown, and it should not be presented as one.

Pretrial vs Sentenced Population

One of the most useful splits in any jail is pretrial versus sentenced. The two groups are held for different reasons, and the distinction is worth defining clearly before reading any number. Burlington County's official sources reviewed do not publish this split for the county jail, so the figures below are definitions only, not county counts.

Pretrial detainee

A person held while a case is still pending. They have not been convicted. They are in jail awaiting a hearing, a plea, or a trial.

Sentenced inmate

A person serving a term after a conviction. The court has decided the case and imposed a sentence.

Why does the mix matter? A jail heavy with pretrial detainees is often shaped by bail decisions and court timing, while a sentenced-heavy count reflects shorter local terms. Burlington County does not post which way its jail leans. The roster shows a bail amount in some rows, which hints at pretrial status, but a list-level bail figure is not the same as a clean pretrial-versus-sentenced tally. Do not read the roster as that tally.

Misdemeanor and Felony Population

Charge level is another way to slice a jail population, and New Jersey uses its own terms. The county does not publish a charge-level breakdown of its jail population, so what follows is how the categories work, not a Burlington count. Knowing the labels still helps you read other records.

In New Jersey, lower-level matters are largely disorderly persons offenses, which are handled in municipal court. These sit roughly where other states use the word misdemeanor. More serious matters are indictable offenses, which run through the Superior Court. These line up with what many people call felonies. The roster does not tag detainees by charge level, and it does not show charges at all in the list view, so you cannot build this breakdown from it.

For the path a charge takes through the courts, the arrest records page covers booking and charges in more depth. Population data and charge data are different things, and they live in different places.

Medical and Mental Health Population

People sometimes ask how many jailed individuals need medical or mental health care. Burlington County does not publish that population count. What the official health page does confirm is the service, not the headcount. Medical staff are on site 24 hours a day, and the jail offers dental, psychiatric, and social services as part of inmate health care.

That is a service fact, not a population figure. It tells you care exists, not how many people use it. A count of inmates with medical or mental health needs is not published in the official sources reviewed, and it should not be estimated. If a future county report or budget document breaks this out, that would be the place to find it.

National and State Context

When local numbers are missing, national and state data fill the gap, as long as you label them honestly. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, a federal agency, publishes the nation's main jail and prison counts. Its reports cover total jail population, ADP, and rates per 100,000 residents across the country. None of that is Burlington-specific, but it sets the backdrop against which any county sits.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics posts these national figures on its public site.

You can read the federal data at bjs.ojp.gov. Use it for the big picture, then narrow down with state and county tools rather than treating a national rate as a local one.

Closer to home, two groups track incarceration in ways that help. The Vera Institute runs an Incarceration Trends project that publishes county-level incarceration trend data, which can include Burlington County over time. Its county view is the most local of the outside sources, though it draws on collected data rather than a live county feed, so check the year on any figure you cite.

Population Trends Over Time

A trend shows how a count moves across years, not just where it sits today. Burlington County does not post a five-year jail population trend in the official sources reviewed. There is no county chart of rising or falling counts on the corrections page. So a true Burlington trend line is not available from the county itself.

State-level trends are easier to find. The Prison Policy Initiative publishes a New Jersey incarceration profile that shows how the state's numbers compare and shift. It is statewide data, not a Burlington County count, and that label matters when you quote it.

The New Jersey profile is at prisonpolicy.org. Pair it with the Vera county trend data for a fuller view, and keep the state and county layers separate so you do not blur one into the other.

The comparison below frames how the layers fit together. It is not a set of county numbers, because the county does not publish them. It is a guide to which source answers which question and at what level.

Note: county-specific capacity and ADP figures are not published in the official Burlington County sources reviewed, so the state and national rows above are context, not local counts.

Searching for Inmate Records by Name

This page is about counts and population, not about finding one person. If you want to check whether a named individual is in custody, that is a different lookup. Use the inmate records page, which covers the Burlington County inmate search by name, the fields it shows, and the phone lines for more detail. For release checks on a named person, the released inmates page handles state, federal, and notification tools.

Where the Data Comes From

Knowing the source keeps you honest about what a number can claim. County custody facts come from the Burlington County Department of Corrections, through its corrections page and its public inmate roster. Those confirm the jail and who is held at a given moment. They do not publish capacity, ADP, demographics, a pretrial-sentenced split, or a county trend, which is why this page leans on outside data for those topics and labels each one.

The outside data has clear owners. National figures come from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. County-level incarceration trends come from the Vera Institute. New Jersey statewide context comes from the Prison Policy Initiative. Each is reputable, each updates on its own clock, and each measures a specific thing, so the date and the definition travel with the number.

One last caution. Many jail-directory and aggregator sites post a Burlington County capacity or population figure that looks official but is not. Those are not used here, and they should not be trusted for a count. If a precise local figure ever matters for a legal or official purpose, the right move is to request it from the county through an official channel, or to look for a county budget, annual report, or board agenda where such figures sometimes appear.

For related lookups, the inmate records page handles name searches, released inmates covers release and notification tools, arrest records explains charges, and the FAQ answers common questions about Burlington County records.