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| Federal Prison Population Nears 165,000 |
| By USA Today |
| Published: 02/03/2003 |
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At a time when tight budgets have forced many states to consider the early release of hundreds of inmates to cut costs, the federal prison system is bursting at the seams and ranks as the largest in the nation. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported a population of nearly 165,000 this month, making the system larger than perennial prison giants California and Texas. At least part of the increase, officials say, is because of a growing pool of non-citizen offenders who represent nearly one-third of the federal inmate population. The majority have been convicted of drug-related crimes, and their numbers jumped from 22% in 1998 to 28% in 2002. The Bureau of Prisons is one of the fastest-growing arms of the federal government. In 1980, the bureau's budget was $330 million, and there were 24,000 inmates in 44 prisons. In 2002, the budget was $4.6 billion, and there were 102 prisons. Eleven more federal prisons are in various stages of construction. ''Our growth and population management has been one of the fundamental issues we've had to address,'' bureau spokesman Dan Dunne says. More than a decade of new legislation expanding federal jurisdiction, strict sentencing guidelines, the abolishment of parole and the recent transfer of more than 8,000 inmates from the custody of the District of Columbia has ensured steady growth. The system's population is projected to reach nearly 190,000 in 2005. |
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