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Stats: prisons are U.S.
September 1999
Our booming prison population
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, if current trends continue, an analysis of 1998 prison population figures indicates that the nation's prison and jail population will reach a total of 2 million inmates in the first year of the new millennium. Last year over 550,000 inmates entered the federal and state prison systems.
More stats Capital punishment Environment Homelessness Welfare reform Our booming prisons Disappearing health care Refugees worldwide Misc. stats The Sentencing Project, meanwhile, notes the "flip side" of the nation's 20-year prison population—a record number of inmates are returning to their families, communities, and society at large, often with little education and job experience.
Between 1986 and 1997 the time to be served by offenders entering federal prison increased from 23 to 75 months for weapons offenders, from 30 to 66 months for drug offenders, and from 74 to 83 months for bank robbery offenders. The time to be served for immigration offenders increased from 3.6 months to 15.1 months, and for weapons offenders, from 23 months to 74.5 months. —Bureau of Justice Statistics
Additional resources:
Criminal Justice Stats
"P.O.V.: Three strikes and you're out"
Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy
America Behind Bars—U.S. Catholic, June 1998
African American men now have a 28 percent lifetime chance of incarceration, compared to the 7 percent chance for white men. Forty percent of federal drug offenders have no current or prior violence on their records.—The Urban Institute
In 1972, the incarceration rate was approximately 100 people per 100,000 population. The current rate of 672 per 100,000 is surpassed only by Russia. The growth in incarceration has had its greatest impact on minority groups. In the ten-year period 1985-1995, the number of Afircan Americans in state prisons increaed by 132 percent, compared to an increase of 109 percent for white prisoners. For drug offenses, there was a 707 percent increase of African American prisoners and a 306 percent increase among white prisoners. In fiscal year 1995, state and federal governments planned $5.1 billion in new prison construction, at an average cost of $58,000 for a medium security cell.—Sentencing Project
Spending an additional $1 million on treatment for drug offenders would reduce serious crime 15 times more than expanding the use of mandatory prison terms.—Rand Corporation
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