WASHINGTON
- America's prison population grew by 2.9 percent last
year, to almost 2.1 million inmates, with one of every
75 men living in prison or jail.
The inmate population continued its rise
despite a fall in the crime rate and many states' efforts
to reduce some sentences, especially for low-level drug
offenders.
The report issued Thursday by the Justice
Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes much
of the increase to get-tough policies enacted during the
1980s and '90s, such as mandatory drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-you're-out"
laws for repeat offenders, and "truth-in-sentencing
laws" that restrict early releases.
Whether that's good or bad depends on
whom is asked.
"The prison system just grows like
a weed in the yard," said Vincent Schiraldi, executive
director of the Justice Policy Institute, which pushes
for a more lenient system.
Without
reforms, he said, prison populations will continue to
grow "almost as if they are on autopilot, regardless
of their high costs and disappointing crime-control impact."
But Attorney General John Ashcroft said
the report shows the success of efforts to take hard-core
criminals off the streets.
"It is no accident that violent crime
is at a 30-year low while prison population is up,"
Ashcroft said. "Violent and recidivist criminals
are getting tough sentences while law-abiding Americans
are enjoying unprecedented safety."
There were 715 inmates for every 100,000
U.S. residents at midyear in 2003, up from 703 a year
earlier, the report found.
The nation's incarceration rate tops the
world, according to The Sentencing Project, another group
that promotes alternatives to prison. That compares with
a rate of 169 per 100,000 residents in Mexico, 116 in
Canada and 143 for England and Wales.
Russia's prison population, which once
rivaled the United States', has dropped to 584 per 100,000
because of prisoner amnesties in recent years, the group
said.
The U.S. inmate population in 2003 grew
at its fastest pace in four years. The number of inmates
increased 1.8 percent in state prisons, 7.1 percent in
federal prisons and 3.9 percent in local jails.
In 2003, 68 percent of prison and jail
inmates were members of racial or ethnic minorities, the
government said. An estimated 12 percent of all black
men in their 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.7
percent of Hispanic men and 1.6 percent of white men in
that age group, according to the report.
The report also said:
- The number of women in state and federal
prisons grew by 5 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent
increase for men. Still, men greatly outnumber women:
1.36 million to 100,102.
- Local jails held 691,301 inmates.
- The inmate population in 10 states
increased at least 5 percent. Some of the smallest state
prison systems saw the largest increase: Vermont's grew
by 12.2 percent, Minnesota was up 9.4 percent and Maine
9.1 percent.
- Only nine states logged a decrease
in prison population, led by Rhode Island with a 3.4
percent drop; Arkansas, 2.2 percent; and Montana, 2.1
percent.
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