Pubdate: Sun, 25 Mar 2001
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press
Author: Karen Gullo, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

PRISON POPULATION AT RECORD HIGH

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of Americans in state prisons last year 
increased at the slowest rate since 1971, though the total number of people 
incarcerated in the United States remained at a record high in 2000, the 
Justice Department reported Sunday.

As of June 2000, 1,931,859 people were in federal, state and local 
facilities, a 3 percent increase over June 1999. The increase was primarily 
in the number of people in federal prisons, researchers said.

The majority of people behind bars in the United States are in state 
prisons, and this population grew by just 1.5 percent, the smallest annual 
growth rate in 29 years, according to a report by the department's Bureau 
of Justice Statistics.

Racial disparities in prison populations were profound, the report showed:

- -Black males were incarcerated in record numbers - a total of 791,600 black 
men were in prison, a new high. Nearly one in eight black males age 20 to 
34 were in prison on any given day, the report said.

- -Racial minorities account for 79 percent of all state prison drug 
offenders. The total number of prisoners in state correctional facilities 
was 1,242,962 as of June 2000. Eleven states reported a decline in their 
inmate populations from 1999 to 2000, including two of the nation's largest 
state prison systems - California and New York.

Allen J. Beck, a co-author of the bureau report, said that state prison 
populations fell because crime is down across the country.

Crime has been falling for several years but, until last year, that did not 
have the effect of slowing the rate of growth in the prison population 
because stricter sentencing rules were keeping inmates in jail longer.

``The drop in crime is finally starting to show up in a smaller growth rate 
in the number of prisoners,'' Beck said.

Prisoner advocates say the trend is encouraging but contend that far too 
many people are incarcerated in the United States compared with other 
countries.

``We have 25 percent of the world's prisoners but we're only 5 percent of 
the world's population,'' said Kara Gotsch of the American Civil Liberties 
Union's National Prison Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration.

Gotsch said the slower growth rate at state prisons could also represent a 
trend toward dealing with offenders outside the prison system.

``Many states are now realizing that it makes not only good criminal 
justice sense but also good financial sense to find alternatives,'' such as 
sending drug offenders into treatment programs, said Gotsch. ``It's too 
expensive to jail everyone.''
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