http://www.rense.com/general53/USrecordprisonpop.htm
US Record Prison Population Rises Again
By Alan Elsner
5-28-4
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States saw its prison and jail population increase again in 2003, the Justice Department reported on Thursday.
The number of people held in U.S. federal and state prisons and jails on June 30, 2003, was 2,078,570 -- almost 41,000 more than the previous year and the biggest increase in four years.
The Justice Department reported earlier this month that the annual cost of the U.S. prison system was around $57 billion.
Women inmates passed the 100,000 level for the first time ever. The number of women incarcerated rose by 5 percent, almost double the rate of increase among males.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the report shows that the United States was succeeding in taking "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 in a statement.
The rise in the prison population comes despite a decade of falling crime rates. But with recidivism as high as 66 percent, fewer crimes has not translated into fewer inmates.
Over the past 25 years, the U.S. prison system has more than quadrupled in size, as the nation adopted policies to get tough on crime. Among those incarcerated are hundreds of thousands of people sentenced to long terms for relatively minor crimes like drug possession, the majority of them black or Hispanic.
"Mandatory sentences are filling federal prisons with low-level offenders instead of the kingpins they were supposed to catch," said Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
However, recently many states have been looking for ways to cut their prison populations to reduce fiscal problems, by releasing non-violent offenders early and by diverting drug offenders to treatment programs.
The fact that the prison population continued to increase despite such steps showed more drastic measures were needed, prison reformers said.
"These new figures demonstrate that modest reforms will not be sufficient to control the explosive growth of the prison system," said Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a Washington think-tank that advocates for a smaller prison system.
"Comprehensive change is necessary to address the range of sentencing policies that have produced this situation," he said.
The United States incarcerates people at a rate six to 10 times higher than most other democracies. For example, the U.S. incarceration rate of 715 per 100,000 residents compares to rates of 114 for Australia, 116 for Canada, 95 for France and 96 for Germany.
Copyright © 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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A report from the US Justice Department also estimated 12 per cent of black men in their 20s and early 30s were in jail last year.
The US currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.
In China, which has a population of about 1.3 billion, there are more than 1.4 million inmates, according to Britain's Home Office. The US has a population of 286 million. (2003 stat)
Russia, which has a population of 144 million, has a prison population of about 920,000. (2003 stat)
1 in 142 US residents now in prison (2002 stat)
"The state of California has opened only one college since 1984 -- and twenty-one prisons." -2001
US Record Prison Population Rises Again
By Alan Elsner
5-28-4
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States saw its prison and jail population increase again in 2003, the Justice Department reported on Thursday.
The number of people held in U.S. federal and state prisons and jails on June 30, 2003, was 2,078,570 -- almost 41,000 more than the previous year and the biggest increase in four years.
The Justice Department reported earlier this month that the annual cost of the U.S. prison system was around $57 billion.
Women inmates passed the 100,000 level for the first time ever. The number of women incarcerated rose by 5 percent, almost double the rate of increase among males.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the report shows that the United States was succeeding in taking "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 in a statement.
The rise in the prison population comes despite a decade of falling crime rates. But with recidivism as high as 66 percent, fewer crimes has not translated into fewer inmates.
Over the past 25 years, the U.S. prison system has more than quadrupled in size, as the nation adopted policies to get tough on crime. Among those incarcerated are hundreds of thousands of people sentenced to long terms for relatively minor crimes like drug possession, the majority of them black or Hispanic.
"Mandatory sentences are filling federal prisons with low-level offenders instead of the kingpins they were supposed to catch," said Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
However, recently many states have been looking for ways to cut their prison populations to reduce fiscal problems, by releasing non-violent offenders early and by diverting drug offenders to treatment programs.
The fact that the prison population continued to increase despite such steps showed more drastic measures were needed, prison reformers said.
"These new figures demonstrate that modest reforms will not be sufficient to control the explosive growth of the prison system," said Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a Washington think-tank that advocates for a smaller prison system.
"Comprehensive change is necessary to address the range of sentencing policies that have produced this situation," he said.
The United States incarcerates people at a rate six to 10 times higher than most other democracies. For example, the U.S. incarceration rate of 715 per 100,000 residents compares to rates of 114 for Australia, 116 for Canada, 95 for France and 96 for Germany.
Copyright © 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
_____________
A report from the US Justice Department also estimated 12 per cent of black men in their 20s and early 30s were in jail last year.
The US currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.
In China, which has a population of about 1.3 billion, there are more than 1.4 million inmates, according to Britain's Home Office. The US has a population of 286 million. (2003 stat)
Russia, which has a population of 144 million, has a prison population of about 920,000. (2003 stat)
1 in 142 US residents now in prison (2002 stat)
"The state of California has opened only one college since 1984 -- and twenty-one prisons." -2001
