Imprisoned rate in 1995 nearly twice that of '85
WASHINGTON (AP) - The proportion of jailed or imprisoned Americans almost doubled in the last decade, but the growth has slowed recently, the Justice Department reported yesterday. An expert said the slower growth may be only temporary.
As of last June 30, the nation's federal, state and local prisons and jails held 615 men and women for each 100,000 U.S. residents, the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said.
By comparison, there were 313 inmates per 100,000 residents at the end of 1985.
The new incarceration rate of one out of every 163 U.S. residents is the world's highest - six to eight times higher than rates in other industrialized countries and exceeding the last reported rate from Russia, in second place with 590 inmates per 100,000 residents in 1994.
>From July 1, 1995, through last June 30, total U.S. incarceration grew by
69,104 to 1,630,940, or 4.4 percent. By comparison, the annual average
increase from the end of 1985 through last June 30 was 7.8 percent.
The government offered no explanation for the dip, but Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, a private group devoted to finding alternatives to imprisonment, said, ``This could be just a momentary letup.''
Mauer said it might reflect a slight drop in drug arrests in the early 1990s, given the time it takes to complete trials and sentencing. Drug arrests rose again in the United States last year, he noted, which could speed up the rate of incarceration.
In addition, ``We haven't seen the full impact yet of tougher new sentencing laws in the last two years, like three-strikes-and-you're-out life imprisonment and truth-in-sentencing provisions, that will increase time served,'' Mauer said. ``All that might show up down the road in a new surge in the rising incarceration rate.''
Jails, which normally hold people awaiting trial and inmates serving less than one year, saw the smallest rate of increase in incarceration during the 12 months through last June.
As of that date, local jails held 518,492 people, or 2.3 percent more than at midyear 1995.
In 1996, local jails reported their lowest occupancy rates in 12 years - 8 percent below their rated capacity. A surge in jail construction added 173,000 jail beds since 1990, during which time the jail inmate population rose by 113,200.
During the 12 months through last June, the incarceration rate in federal prisons rose by 4.3 percent and in state prisons by 5.6 percent.
For the full report see "Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 1996" at http://149.101.22.3/bjs/press.htm