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| Some Prison Cells Now Stand Empty |
| By Join Together Online |
| Published: 09/24/2001 |
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Prison cells in some states are now standing empty, a situation that could become a national trend as a result of a prison-construction binge, a decline in crime, and relaxed sentencing laws, the Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 6. In Holly Springs, Miss., for instance, the private prison-management company Wackenhut Corrections Corp., has 130 empty steel bunks in two cellblocks, because there aren't enough felons to fill them. The unused space was costing the company money it normally received from the state to house inmates, so Mississippi lawmakers approved a bill that would pay companies and counties in the state for empty prison beds. This year, Mississippi had 2,000 more prison beds than prisoners, a problem that was unforeseen when the state expanded its prisons seven years ago, building 15 more. The prison-construction boom can be traced primarily to the harsh mandatory sentences imposed on drug offenders, which helped swell prison populations in the 1980s and 1990s. Other states are experiencing similar challenges. Experts say the decline in prison population is leveling off, the result of a drop in crime and relaxed sentencing laws in some states. Like Mississippi, South Carolina is dealing with 1,000 empty prison beds, even after the state closed a prison to save money. In Michigan, the opening of a new prison has been put on hold because the state doesn't have the inmates to occupy it. Experts say empty cells are likely to be a lasting problem, considering that last year the nation's prison population grew by 1.3 percent, its slowest pace since 1972. During the second half of 2000, the nationwide state-prison population dropped by 0.5 percent, the first decline in nearly three decades. |
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