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| U.S. Prison Population Surpasses Two Million |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/08/2003 |
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The number of people in U.S. prisons and jails has surpassed two million for the first time, according to a Justice Department report released on Sunday. Prisons and jails held one out of every 142 U.S. residents. The prison and jail population, long the world's largest, has almost doubled since 1990. There were 2,019,234 persons in prisons or jails at the end of June 2002, according to the report. About two-thirds of the total were in state and federal prisons, while the rest were in local jails. U.S. prisons house people convicted of felonies, while jails generally hold people serving sentences for misdemeanors or awaiting trial. The Sentencing Project, a group which promotes alternatives to prison, said state and federal policies continue to drive up incarceration rates despite sharp drops in violent crime rates since 1994. 'The relentless increases in prison and jail populations can best be explained as the legacy of an entrenched infrastructure of punishment that has been embedded in the criminal justice system over the last 30 years,' said Malcolm Young, the group's executive director. In the 12 months ended June 30, the jail population went up by 34,235 inmates, a 5.4 percent rise and the largest increase since 1997, according to the report. State prisons added 12,440 inmates, a one percent increase, while the federal prison system grew by 8,042 inmates, a 5.7 percent increase. An estimated 12 percent of black males, four percent of Hispanic males and 1.6 percent of white males in their 20s and early 30s were in prison or jail. Among the other findings of the report: -- A total of 7,248 jailed inmates and 3,055 state prisoners were under 18. -- The federal government's prison system had the largest number of inmates at 161,681, followed by California with 160,315 prisoners and Texas with 158,131 inmates. -- Twenty states experienced an inmate population increase of 5 percent or more during the 12-month period. -- Female prisoners totaled 96,099 at the end of June, accounting for 6.7 percent of all inmates. |
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