Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) DOJ
Posted on 11/30/2006 2:04:02 AM PST by Mrs Ivan
A record 7 million people - or one in every 32 American adults - were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department.
Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 per cent over the previous year, according to a report.
More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.
Men still far outnumber women in prisons and jails, but the female population is growing faster. Over the past year, the female population in state or federal prison increased 2.6 per cent while the number of male inmates rose 1.9 per cent. By year's end, 7 per cent of all inmates were women. The gender figures do not include inmates in local jails.
"Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement. "Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails."
From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offences have accounted for 49 per cent of total prison population growth.
The numbers are from the annual report from the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. The report breaks down inmate populations for state and federal prisons and local jails.
Racial disparities among prisoners persist. In the 25-29 age group, 8.1 per cent of black men - about one in 13 - are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 per cent of Hispanic men and 1.1 per cent of white men. And it's not much different among women. By the end of 2005, black women were more than twice as likely as Hispanics and over three times as likely as white women to be in prison.
Certain states saw more significant changes in prison population. In South Dakota, the number of inmates increased 11 per cent over the past year, more than any other state. Montana and Kentucky were next in line with increases of 10.4 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively. Georgia had the biggest decrease, losing 4.6 per cent, followed by Maryland with a 2.4 per cent decrease and Louisiana with a 2.3 per cent drop.
Yep.
let's worry about who they let out.
" 1 in every 32 U.S. adults behind bars, on probation or on parole in 2005 "
"Is this truw?"
I can't confirm the exact numbers, Mrs. I, but it's entirely believable....
The "Land of the free, and the home of the brave" is moving ever closer to the Orwellian state where "everything that's not required is forbidden" -- and so an ever-increasing number of us are, techincally, criminals.
I used to use a tagline that read: "The most dangerous phrase in the English language: 'There oughtta be a law'" --
"How do you boil a frog?"
This is also extremely expensive. It costs something like $45,000 a year per prisoner.
Law enforcement doing what it's supposed to. A good start.
I'd like to know how many of them are REALLY US Citizens...not ones with really good forged papers, using another identity or child of a alien resident, legal or not.
I just did the maths! That is a HUGE sum of money!
I cannot help thinking that it would be rather more economic to introduce alternative punishments that would be a real deterrant - hanging and flogging, for example.
Some posters are beginning to sound like the New York Times: "Crime rates are down, so why are so many people in prison?"
Hint: Social "scientists" haven't figured out a way to "reform" criminals to prevent recidivism. But while locked up, criminals cannot repeat their antisocial, criminal behavior. So locking up criminals prevents crime by those criminals who are locked up. Do we agree?
the law must be discriminatory towards male! Its sexist!
I wonder how many FReepers are behind bars as compared to being in one?
" So locking up criminals prevents crime by those criminals who are locked up. Do we agree?"
We agree, as long as we can agree on a definition of "criminal"....
If you define "criminal" as "someone who does direct, material, and provable harm to the person or property of another", then we're in complete agreement...
If you go by the increasintly prevalent definiton of "anybody who does something I don't like, or who by word, thought, deed, or very existence, offends me", then we're on completely different pages.....
Hanging and flogging are cruel and unusual -- even when the person is an enthusiastic participant.
There are entire communities that are economically dependent on prison systems. Essentially it's an industry.
The key is to keep people from committing crimes in the first place.
How many of those incarcerated are American citizens? A goodly portion of them are Mexican criminals.
How many of those incarcerated are American citizens?
Very good questions!
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We certainly do.
Criminals are concentrated among poor segments of the population. I haven't seen the numbers, but I would bet that crime/prison populations have increased in areas where workfare programs were instituted.
We can try harder...
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