Law
U.S. Prison Population At New High
April 20, 2000 1:27 a.m. EDT
© 2000 Associated Press
All rights reserved
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of imprisoned American adults hit a record high of 1.86 million last year, the Justice Department says.
The prison population grew at a slower rate last year, the department said. However, with the latest increase of nearly 60,000 prisoners, the United States may have matched or even surpassed Russia as the country with the highest rate of incarceration.
As of June 1999, prisons and jails held 1,860,520 people, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report. That's an increase of more than a million people since 1985, when the figure was less 800,000.
Last year's total included more than 1.1 million state prisoners, about 606,000 men and women in local jails, and about 118,000 federal inmates. The rate of state and federal prison growth was 4.4 percent, the lowest since the 2.3 percent growth in 1979.
While the growth rate for state and local prisons declined last year, federal prisons continued to hold more people, adding more than 11,000 inmates.
Drug Prosecutions A Factor
Viewing the latest prison figures in light of the current U.S. population, one of every 147 residents was an inmate in an adult jail or prison at the middle of last year.
In Russia, one of every 146 people was behind bars in 1998, the last year for which figures were available, according to The Sentencing Project, a private group that advocates alternatives to prison.
The proportion of prisoners has likely decreased because Russia had planned to release as many as 300,000 inmates by the end of 2000 to reduce chronic prison overcrowding.
The U.S. prison population has grown for more than a quarter-century, helped by increased drug prosecutions and tougher policies against all offenders.
Prisons usually hold convicted criminals sentenced to terms longer than one year, while jails generally keep inmates with shorter sentences or awaiting trial.
Crime rates have been declining since 1993, but longer sentences, especially for drug crimes during the 1980s and for violent crimes in the 1990s, have driven prison populations.
More mandatory minimum sentences and less generous parole have also contributed to the increase. The prison population last declined in 1972.
Books Sense and Nonsense About Crime and Drugs:
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This book is intended as a supplemental text for a variety of courses in departments of criminal justice, sociology, and political science.
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Sense and Nonsense About Crime and Drugs The American Disease:
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A book more for the student, than the average reader. This is a classic study of the development of drug laws in the U.S.
David Musto examines the relations between public outcry and the creation of prohibitive drug laws from the end of the Civil War to the Reagan and Clinton administrations.
The American Disease Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed
and What We Can Do About It:
A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs
Written by a man who has worked as a federal prosecutor, a trial judge, and a California superior court justice. The author informs readers of the amount of money spent, the crime caused, and the lives ruined by the war on drugs.
Many people in government, legal, and other positions who are in favor of the war on drugs see it as an easy means of getting some of the billions of dollars wasted on it each year in the US.
Putting nonviolent offenders in prison and diverting law enforcement resources that could be used to serve and protect society as a whole might not be a very good decision.
Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed
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