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| Prison Population Growth Slows |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/03/2003 |
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The number of people incarcerated in the United States reached a new high last year, though the prison population grew at its slowest rate in three decades. Overall, 1,965,495 people were in custody in the nation's federal and state prisons and local jails in June 2001, a 1.6 percent increase from the previous year, the Justice Department reported recently. Put in perspective, the number of people behind bars last year was slightly less than the population of Nevada. About one in 145 U.S. residents were in prison or jail. Tougher anti-crime policies, more facilities and longer sentences are the reasons cited for the decades-long increase in the prison population, which rises to a high nearly every year. Most of the growth between 2000 and 2001 came in federal facilities. 'It appears the state prison population has reached some stability,' said Allen Beck, a statistician with the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Crime rates are down and parole violations have stabilized, while state legislatures in recent years have not enacted the kind of sweeping sentencing reforms passed in the early 1990s. Beck said the federal system could continue to grow at its current pace as federal court caseloads swell with drug, immigration and weapons prosecutions. The population in U.S. and state prisons combined rose 1.1 percent, the slowest annual growth since 1972, when there was a 1 percent decline. The bulk of the prison population is at the state level, which rose 0.4 percent. The number of federal prisoners rose 7.2 percent. 'The federal government is out of step with states that are finding more economical and humane ways to hold nonviolent offenders accountable for their actions,' said Vincent Schiraldi, president of the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that urged federal reforms. Some of the increase in the federal prison population can be attributed to the U.S. government assuming responsibility for District of Columbia prisoners. That transfer ended last year. In the first half of 2001, 7,372 inmates were added to the federal system, the largest six-month increase. State systems gained 7,048 inmates in the same period. The number of people being held in local jails in June 2001 rose 1.6 percent from the previous year. |
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