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| Record 6.47 Million Adults in Corrections System |
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Posted by FoM on August 27, 2001 at 11:51:45 PT By The Associated Press Source: Washington Post 
The number of adults behind bars, on parole or on probation reached a record 6.47 million in 2000 -- or one in 32 American adults, the government reported yesterday. On the positive side, the percentage increase from 1999 was half the average annual rate since 1990.Jails and prisons held 30 percent of the adults in the corrections system, or 1,933,503. People on probation accounted for 59 percent of the total, or 3,839,532. An additional 725,527 adults were on parole, a period of supervision after release from prison. Over the past two decades, the number of adults in the corrections system has tripled. They make up 3.1 percent of the country's adult population, compared with 1 percent in 1980, said Allen J. Beck, a chief researcher with the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. "It's just overwhelming," said Kara Gotsch, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration. "It just shows that we need to put much more into prevention." During the 1990s, the corrections population increased 49 percent. By the end of last year, there were 2.1 million more adults in the system than there were in 1990. The rate of growth was 2 percent between 1999 and 2000, compared with an average of 4 percent during the 1990s. Beck attributed the slowing growth to the cumulative effect of a drop in crime rates that began in the 1990s. "This could be the beginning of a peak," said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Nearly 2.5 million people were released from parole or probation in 2000. Among parolees, half successfully completed the terms of their release in 1990. By 2000, 43 percent completed parole and stayed out through the end of the year. Among those released from community supervision in 2000, 15 percent of probationers and 42 percent of parolees were sent back to prison or jail that year for new violations. Fox said that figure underestimates the large number of probationers and parolees who will probably be convicted again. Beck noted that the number of Americans who have returned to prison has remained stable over time. To Gotsch, that shows the shortsightedness of corrections policies that focus more on punishment and less on rehabilitation. "It's no wonder that they're re-offending at incredibly high rates, because we don't teach them anything else," she said. The report also showed: • Among those on probation, 52 percent were convicted of felonies, the most frequent of which was driving under the influence, followed by drug offenses. • The percentage of women in the prison population, as well as their percentages among probationers and parolees, rose. • The states with the largest percentage of their adult population in the corrections system were Georgia, 6.8 percent, and Texas, 5 percent. At the other end were West Virginia, New Hampshire and North Dakota, each with 0.9 percent. Newshawk: Jack D. Related Articles: Prison-Industrial Complex Justice: Federal Drug Charges Rise Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #2 posted by smart reader on August 27, 2001 at 13:02:49 PT |
| ...How much money does this take away from money being circulated at the local diners, convenient, grocery stores, etc. etc.??? How much extra Monetary Strain does it append to us- the Tazpayers' funding this Drug War Ideology- who didn't even ask to do in the first place by NOT VOTING??? WHere's EQUALITY??? certainly not here, in AmeriKKKa. People with Hooded Heads are Having the times of their lives- ruining others- like a Harsh, Stone WHitE disEASE...a CRACKER ROCK!!! I hope WHITE people F@cking DIE OFF--- They're TOO F@CKING CONTROLLING!!! Control Sex, Thought, Movement, Expression, Emotion, Compassion, Determination,& Factual Estimations. I see it happening already... keep locking each other up... and YOU---computer DICK--- You have the money to do LOTS in your miserable, Uncontrollable Life... Genocide's been going on tooo long!!! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by PoisonedFor4YrsSoFar on August 27, 2001 at 12:35:46 PT |
| West Viriginia is supposed to have a fairly nonfascist type of citizenry ( nice people ). It is supposed to be a great place to live too. Acreage is CHEAP! [ Post Comment ] |
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