How to Look Up York County Jail Population Data
York County does not run a live population dashboard. There is no single web page that shows a running count for the county jail. So the data lives in a few different places, and you piece it together. The most useful single source is the York County Prison Board. The board meets in public, and its agendas and minutes often list current head counts and other figures. The board page is at yorkcountypa.gov/983/Prison-Board.
The board oversees the prison and meets on a set schedule, so the numbers in its minutes update about once a month. Treat those board figures as the official county source. Anything else, such as a national estimate, is context, not a county count. The next most solid facts are the jail's rated capacity and the work release bed count, which stay fairly fixed. Those let you gauge how much room the jail has, even when a fresh population number is not posted.
One thing to keep clear from the start. This is aggregate data about the whole jail. It is not a way to find one person by name.
York County Jail Capacity Overview
Capacity is the firmest number on this topic. The York County Prison sits at 3400 Concord Road, York, PA 17402. It is rated for a maximum of 2,400 beds. The prison holds two main groups: pretrial detainees who are still awaiting trial, and people who have already been sentenced by the Court of Common Pleas. Part of the prison is set aside as the Work Release Center, which has 276 beds for people who leave to work and return to custody.
The table below lists those rated bed counts. Note that it does not show a current population. York County does not post a live count, so the daily number is left blank on purpose. For the most recent head count, check the Prison Board minutes.
| Facility | Rated Capacity (beds) | Current Population |
|---|---|---|
| York County Prison, 3400 Concord Road, York, PA 17402 | 2,400 maximum | Not published (see Prison Board minutes) |
| Work Release Center (part of York County Prison) | 276 | Not published (see Prison Board minutes) |
Employers who need to reach the work release program can call the Work Release Officer's Desk at 717-840-7593. That line handles job and scheduling questions, not population counts.
Average Daily Population and the Prison Board
This is a key gap to know up front. The official York County pages do not publish a current average daily population. There is no posted ADP figure and no year-over-year change to cite. So if you see a "York County ADP" number floating around online, check where it came from before you trust it.
The best route to a real figure is the York County Prison Board. The board has seven voting members: three County Commissioners, the Sheriff, the Controller, the District Attorney, and a Court of Common Pleas judge. It meets in public, which is why its records can carry head counts and other population notes. Meetings are generally the second Tuesday of each month at 9:00 a.m. Most are held at the York County Administrative Center, Third Floor Training Room, 28 East Market Street. The January, April, July, and October meetings move to the prison conference room at 3400 Concord Road.
More on the board's makeup and schedule is on the official page below.
Agendas and minutes from these meetings are published. They are a good source for the most current population figures, because the board reviews the jail on a regular cycle. If you need a recent count, the minutes are where to look.
Demographic Breakdown and What Is Not Published
Many people come here hoping for a clean demographic table, with splits by gender, race, and age. York County does not publish that. The official county pages carry no demographic breakdown of the jail population. There is no posted gender split, no race data, and no age distribution for the county jail.
Because no such figures are released by the county, no percentages can be listed here in good faith. Inventing them would be worse than leaving them out. The list below shows the kinds of metrics that the county simply does not publish, so you know what to stop looking for on the county site.
- Current average daily population
- Demographic breakdown by gender, race, or age
- Pretrial vs. sentenced ratio
- Felony vs. misdemeanor split
- Average length of stay
- A five-year population trend
For any of these, the better path is the Prison Board minutes and agendas, county budget documents, or the state and federal reports listed further down. Those outside sources sometimes carry data the county itself does not post.
Pretrial vs. Sentenced Population
The York County Prison holds two groups at once. The first is pretrial detainees, people who have been arrested and are held while their cases move through the courts. They have not been convicted. The second group is people who have already been sentenced by the Court of Common Pleas and are serving their time in the county jail. Both groups share the same facility.
The mix between these two groups changes over time. As courts move cases along, people shift from the pretrial side to the sentenced side, or they are released. York County does not publish a current pretrial-vs-sentenced ratio, so no fixed percentage can be stated here. The status labels are shown below, but the share for each is left as not published, because the county does not release it.
| Status | Share of Jail Population |
|---|---|
| Pretrial (awaiting trial, not convicted) | Not published by York County |
| Sentenced (by the Court of Common Pleas) | Not published by York County |
It helps to know who is held where. People sentenced to less than two years are typically kept at the York County Prison. People with longer sentences typically go to a state prison run by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. So the county jail leans toward shorter sentences and pretrial holds, while the state system handles the long terms.
County Jail vs. State Prison Sentences
One reason the county jail population is hard to pin down is that not every convicted person stays in the county. The split runs by sentence length. A sentence of under two years is typically served at the York County Prison. A longer sentence typically sends the person to a state prison run by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
This matters for population data. The county jail count does not include people who were sentenced out of York County courts but shipped off to state prison. The county does not publish a felony-vs-misdemeanor split for the jail, so no charge-type breakdown can be given here. If you want statewide figures on people sent to state prison, the Department of Corrections is the place to look, not the county.
PREA Safety Reporting
York County does not publish a count of people in the jail who get mental health or medical care. What it does publish is a safety report under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, known as PREA. This is a different kind of number. It tracks allegations of abuse and harassment, not the share of the population in care.
The 2025 year-end PREA report listed 36 abuse allegations and 64 harassment allegations, for 100 total PREA allegations. Some of those cases were still pending at the time of the report. Read these as PREA allegation counts. They are not a general population figure, and they should not be mixed up with how many people are held in the jail.
The full PREA reporting page is linked below.
The PREA page sits with the county at yorkcountypa.gov/1282/Prison-Rape-Elimination-Act-PREA. It explains how allegations are tracked and reported each year.
Where County, State, and National Data Comes From
Jail data sits at three levels, and each level has its own source. It helps to know which one answers which question. County figures come straight from York County. State context comes from Pennsylvania. National context comes from federal and research groups. The table below maps each level to what it covers and where to find it.
| Source Level | What It Covers | Where to Find It |
|---|---|---|
| County data | York County Prison head counts and budget figures | York County Prison Board minutes and county budget documents |
| State context | County jail trends and state prison data for Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Department of Corrections county jail reports |
| National context | Jail population counts and rates across the country | BJS Jail Inmates reports and the Vera Institute county trends |
One caution on rates. A per-100,000 jail rate for York County is not published in the county pages. National groups like the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the Vera Institute do report rates, but those are national or research estimates, not an official county count. So treat a per-100k rate as outside context, never as a York County figure. Use the county source for county numbers and the national source for the big picture.
Population Trends and Juvenile Context
A five-year trend for the York County jail is not published by the county. The official pages do not carry a multi-year line of population numbers. To build any trend, you would have to pull figures from a run of Prison Board minutes, or lean on the Vera Institute county trends and BJS reports for the wider pattern. None of those is a single official county chart, so read a trend as pieced together, not as one posted statistic.
Juvenile cases sit under their own rules and are not part of the adult jail count. Title 42 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes (42 Pa.C.S.) sets the juvenile court provisions and limits on public access to those records. Juvenile populations are handled apart from the adult system, so they do not show up in York County Prison figures.
The relevant Pennsylvania statute is linked below.
You can read the juvenile court provisions at the state legislature site: legis.state.pa.us. Because access to juvenile records is limited by law, those figures will not appear in general jail population data.
Searching for York County Inmate Records by Name
This page covers aggregate population data only, not a search for one person. To find a named individual who is in custody, use the York County inmate records resources, which handle name-based roster lookups. Aggregate counts and a single person's record come from different sources, so the population figures here will not return an individual result.
Where the Data Comes From
For the most current York County figures, start with the Prison Board agendas and minutes, then add county budget documents. For state context, use the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections county jail reports. For the national picture, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Jail Inmates annual reports and the Vera Institute county trends are the standard sources.
Keep the labels straight. The county capacity of 2,400 beds, the 276 work release beds, and the PREA allegation counts are York County figures. A per-100,000 rate or a national average is outside context. The county does not publish detailed population metrics like average daily population, demographics, or a five-year trend, so those come from the board minutes and the wider reports above, not from a single county dashboard. You can also cross-check arrest and court activity through York County arrest records and York County court records, which feed into who ends up in the jail.