Pubdate: Mon, 26 Jul 2004
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2004 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Fox Butterfield
Read: the report at http://www.csdp.org/research/ppus03.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

U.S. 'CORRECTIONAL POPULATION' HITS NEW HIGH

The number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system 
grew by 130,700 last year to reach a new high of nearly 6.9 million, 
according to a Justice Department report released today.

The total includes people in jail and prison as well as those on probation 
and parole. This is about 3.2 percent of the adult population in the United 
States, the report said.

The growth in what the report termed the "correctional population" comes at 
a time when the crime rate nationwide has been relatively stable for 
several years. It also comes when many states, faced with budget deficits, 
have passed new, less strict sentencing laws in an attempt to reduce the 
number of inmates.

The report does not address why the number of men and women in jail and 
prison and on probation and parole has continued to increase. But experts 
say the most likely reason is the cumulative effect of the tougher 
sentencing laws passed in the 1990's, which led to more people's being sent 
to prison and being required to serve longer terms.

The report found that there were 691,301 people in local and county jails 
and 1,387,269 in state and federal prisons last year, for a total of 
2,078,570. That was an increase of 3.9 percent in the jail population and 
2.3 percent in the prison population.

At the same time, the report said, there were 4,073,987 Americans on 
probation at the end of last year, an increase of 1.2 percent from the end 
of 2002, and 774,588 on parole, up 3.1 percent.

In general, people on probation have been placed there after being 
convicted of a crime instead of being sent to jail or prison. People on 
parole have usually already served prison time and are kept on parole for 
further supervision.

About 41 percent of adults on parole last year were black; 40 percent were 
white.

The number of women on parole has steadily increased in recent years, the 
report found. The percentage of parolees who were women was 13 percent at 
the end of 2003, up from 10 percent at the end of 1995. This increase 
reflects a slow but steady growth in the number of women being arrested for 
and convicted of serious crimes.

Of those people discharged from parole in 2003, 38 percent were returned to 
prison, either because of a technical violation like failing a drug urine 
test or because they were charged with committing a new crime. Another 9 
percent absconded and could not be located by law enforcement, the report said.

The 3.1 percent increase in the number of people on parole, the biggest in 
at least a decade, troubles many police and prosecutors, because they 
believe that newly released inmates are likely to return to a life of crime 
and are a major source of violence in some cities, including Boston, 
Chicago and Los Angeles.

Texas led the nation with 534,260 people on probation or parole, followed 
by California, with 485,039. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake