U.S. Prison Population Surpasses 2 Million

Reuters via Lycos.com ^ | 04/06/2003 | James Vicini

[GeneD]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people in U.S. prisons and jails has surpassed 2 million for the first time, according to a Justice Department report released on Sunday.

Prisons and jails held one out of every 142 U.S. residents. The prison and jail population, long the world's largest, has almost doubled since 1990.

There were 2,019,234 persons in prisons or jails at the end of June 2002, according to the report. About two-thirds of the total were in state and federal prisons, while the rest were in local jails.

U.S. prisons house people convicted of felonies, while jails generally hold people serving sentences for misdemeanors or awaiting trial.

The Sentencing Project, a group which promotes alternatives to prison, said state and federal policies continue to drive up incarceration rates despite sharp drops in violent crime rates since 1994.

"The relentless increases in prison and jail populations can best be explained as the legacy of an entrenched infrastructure of punishment that has been embedded in the criminal justice system over the last 30 years," said Malcolm Young, the group's executive director.

In the 12 months ended June 30, the jail population went up by 34,235 inmates, a 5.4 percent rise and the largest increase since 1997, according to the report. State prisons added 12,440 inmates, a 1 percent increase, while the federal prison system grew by 8,042 inmates, a 5.7 percent increase.

An estimated 12 percent of black males, 4 percent of Hispanic males and 1.6 percent of white males in their 20s and early 30s were in prison or jail.

Among the other findings of the report:

-- A total of 7,248 jailed inmates and 3,055 state prisoners were under 18.

-- The federal government's prison system had the largest number of inmates at 161,681, followed by California with 160,315 prisoners and Texas with 158,131 inmates.

-- Twenty states experienced an inmate population increase of 5 percent or more during the 12-month period.

-- Female prisoners totaled 96,099 at the end of June, accounting for 6.7 percent of all inmates.

[friendly]

2,019,234 sociopath Americans out of the gene pool (excluding of course currently non-imprisoned democrats and the lawyer industry)

[annyokie]

Good! Now they can get out there on those road gangs and pick up all the litter here on our highways.

[Fraulein]

"Prisons and jails held one out of every 142 U.S. residents. The prison and jail population, long the world's largest, has almost doubled since 1990..."

[templar]

The nature of felonies that requrie imrisonment aside, this is well under 1 in 100 residents. Not bad, all things considered.

[Steely Tom]

NPR presentation of this story this very afternoon: "the rate of incarceration continues to increase even as the crime rate decreases."

Leaving alone the intentionally misleading use of the phrase "rate of incarceration", NPR takes a clear cause-and-effect relationship and makes it sound like a contradiction in terms, another example of the absurdity of life under the GOP in America. Well, perhaps I exaggerate a little.

(steely)

[RipSawyer]

"The nature of felonies that requrie imrisonment aside, this is well under 1 in 100 residents. Not bad, all things considered."

It surely is a good thing that noone is imprisoned for misspellings and typographical errors in your case.
Actually I think we have too many people in prison and too many out of prison who should be in prison.

[RipSawyer]

"2,019,234 sociopath Americans out of the gene pool (excluding of course currently non-imprisoned democrats and the lawyer industry)"
Many of these people are far from sociopaths. We should all stop and realize that if there were some way that everyone who ever broke a law were to be caught, convicted, and given the punishment prescribed by law we would be forced to simply declare the entire country a prison because we would all be going inside and the last judge would be forced to sentence himself and slam the door behind his own rear end.
If you think I am exaggerating you simply are not aware of the true situation in "the land of the free"!

[Joe_October]

Yea, funny.

When you put more felons in jail, the amount of violent crime declines.

Let me say it another way.

More Felons in Jail. Less Crime.

or,

Punish bad guys. Help good guys.

The Libs just won't get it.

[TFMcGuire]

Let's contract our prisons out to Turkey or Mexico.

One prisoner fed and housed for $3.00/day.

We'd save money and prison would be prison!

'Course that's not enough money for color televisions, off-campus college education, and seperate housing for perverts.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

state and federal policies continue to drive up incarceration rates despite sharp drops in violent crime rates since 1994...

Hmmmm.....let me reword that for clarity:

"Incarceration policies since 1994 continue to drive sharp drops in violent crime rates."

(There we go! Same words rearranged.)

[TheMole]

Two million CoreDemocrats who can't break into your house, hurt you or your family, or vote Democrat because they're behind bars.

It gives me a warm feeling inside.

[yankeedame]

2,019,234 sociopath Americans out of the gene pool...

...out of 250,000,000+ million. What are we talking about here? Less than 1%? More along the line of 8/10th of 1%? How does this figure historically? Both in the US and other nations around the world? I mean, there are numbers and then there are numbers.

And let's also remember that many countries do not bother sending their criminals to jail. At best they go to "re-education camps"; at worse they simply disappear.

[AdamSelene235]

The nature of felonies that requrie imrisonment aside, this is well under 1 in 100 residents. Not bad, all things considered.

The definition of felony is slipping. I have a friend who is a felon because his dog jumped a fence and chased a deer. Naturally he has lost his right to bear arms.

~11% of Americans are convicted felons but less than half of all those felons have been incarcerated.

The original definition of "felony" (and the one Scalia uses)is: A serious crime punishable by death.

[Nucluside]

I was listening to Democrat Peoples' Radio this afternoon, too!! I was shocked to hear that startling revelation!
That they would finally admit the crime rate goes down when the prison population goes up!
Did it sound to you like they reported it negatively (LOL!)? Did to me.
No wonder that the Rats want to register and vote them. It'd be Rats by a landslide, all things being equal as/per the 2000 election.

[friendly]

Many of these people are far from sociopaths.

I visit people in jail 4 to 6 times per year. You have to work at getting in jail by doing really bad things, with all the diversion programs and soft judges.

In response to your comment, I will correct myself and say that many of the people in jail are sociopaths.

I stand firm however on the sociopathic nature of democrats and especially lawyers!

[Pharmboy]

...and that, Fraulein, is why crime continues to drop.

[friendly]

2,019,234 sociopath Americans out of the gene pool... ...out of 250,000,000+ million. What are we talking about here? Less than 1%?

Yes, but that is some horrific 1%. Career criminals do an astonishing amount of the hard core crime: 60%+

[Centurion2000]

bump

[Henchman]

The bad part - 1/2 of those needing to be there are outside and the good part - AIDS will knock of 50% of thhose behind bars.