Record numbers entering U.S. prisons
by M. J. Sniffen (Washington AP 12/4/95)

A record wave of new inmates flowed into state and federal prisons during the 12 months that ended last June, enough to require 1,725 new beds each week.

The U.S. also set another record for its rate of incarceration. It locks up a greater share of its residents than any other nation.

During the 12 months, the inmate population grew by 89,707. The previous record annual increase was in calendar 1989, when 84,764 inmates were added, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, which released its midyear report Sunday.

As of June 30, there were 1,004,608 state prison inmates, up 9.1 percent, and 99,466 federal inmates, up 6.1 percent.

The record increase "was a little higher than most years. But the annual average since 1980 has been 8.7 percent, so there's been steady growth," said Allen Beck, the bureau's chief of corrections statistics.

Despite some popular misconceptions, Beck said, "There's been no change in the level of overcrowding. Since 1990, new prison capacity has been keeping pace with inmate growth." Average time served has declined slightly, he said.

The report shows the largest prison inmate growth, up 27% to 127,092, was in Texas, where Beck said sizeable prison construction is under way.

The bureau said the overall incarceration rate as of 12/31/94, reached 565 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. That counts prison inmates, mostly sentenced to more than one year, and jail inmates, mostly sentenced to less than one year. There were 483,717 adults in jails at last count in 1994.

The U.S. rate tops the latest figures from Russia of 558 per 100,000 and is eight to 10 times higher than other industrialized nations in Western Europe, said Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, a private group lobbying for alternatives to imprisonment.

By June 30 of this year, the felony incarceration rate reached 403 per 100,000, the bureau said. Mauer said that would push the overall rate to about 600 per 100,000.

The last year the nation's prison population dropped was 1968, when it dipped to 187,000 from 199,000 in 1967, according to Beck, a co-author of the report. The population has climbed steadily since 1973.

Mandatory sentences for drug and violent crimes and an increased likelihood of being imprisoned once arrested have caused the increase, Beck said.

Between 1980 and 1993, drug offenders increased from 25% to 60% of all federal inmates.

During the same period in state prisons, violent criminals, most convicted of aggravated assault, accounted for 40% and drug criminals for nearly 31% of inmate growth, Beck said.

The chance of going to jail for drug offenses rose more than fivefold between 1980 and 1992. It went from 19 imprisoned out of every 1,000 people arrested in 1980 to 104 out of every 1,000 in 1992. Similar increases were seen in incarceration rates for aggravated assault, robbery and sex offenses, Beck said.