ashar qureshi, al jazeera, chicago. >>> our week-long special, five days in chicago continues tonightt 7:00 pm eastern. >>> and there is more evidence this morning that the population in america's jails is on the rise. new numbers showing that there are nearly 700,000 inmates looked up every day in this country. >>> in san francisco, voters there today deciding whether to spend more than $300 million to build a new jail. in that project divided the city. melissa chan has more. >> reporter: for opponents a new jail symbolizes the prison industrial complex. >> we are not going to support stand-alone prison to continue to lock up african americans and latinos in this city. >> reporter: and it's unnecessary, they say, when the number of inmates in the city has dropped in cent years. >> we want to build a system that will make san francisco safer. we know the jails do not make our citizens and community safer here in san francisco. >> reporter: but the mayor and the sheriff's department argue that the building is not safe in the earthquake zone. >> it is a jail that has gone way beyond its

ashar qureshi investigators. >> reporter: weekend after weekend, shooting after shoot, chicago has becomemous for its gun violence. >> this chicago ten people are dead, at least 54 others injured. >> reporter: it has dominated the headlines. giving rise to the city's nickname, shi-raq. and yet the city is arguably safer than it has been in decades past. in 1991 there were 928 homicides. but safety is relative. >> and it starts from the top down! >> reporter: city worker is fed up. >> your mayor -- >> reporter: we took the day off to protest. >> it always has been division. it has always been two chicagos. we have known that our whole lives. we hear shots almost every night. everybody is on pins and needles, and then after a period of time you become numb to it. i don't want us to become numb anymore. >> reporter: chicago is america's most segregated city, with violent crime concentrated in mostly poor black communities and neighborhoods. the most dangerous neighborhoods are found on the south and west sides. critics say more effort needs to go into less violence happens in the most socioe