US prison population hit 7.3 million in 2007!

[Darth Wong]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/02/rec ... index.html

Study: 7.3 million in U.S. prison system in '07

(CNN) -- A record number of Americans served time in corrections systems across the country in 2007, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Center on the States.

The U.S. correctional population -- those in jail, prison, on probation or on parole -- totaled 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 adults.

The Pew Center on the States compiled the information from Justice Department and Census Bureau statistics.

America's prison population has skyrocketed over the past quarter century. In 1982, 1 in 77 adults were in the correctional system in one form or another, totaling 2.2 million people.

The United States has 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prison inmates, the center said.

The numbers vary widely by race and gender.

"Black adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. One in 11 black adults -- 9.2 percent -- was under correctional supervision at year-end 2007," the report said. "And although the number of female offenders continues to grow, men of all races are under correctional control at a rate five times that of women."

There are also wide differences depending on the state. Georgia tops the nation, with 1 in 13 adults in the state's corrections system, while in New Hampshire the figure is 1 in 88. Southern states tended to have higher rates, with Plains and rural Northeastern states coming in lower.

"State policy choices are responsible for creating this mess and state policy choices can get us out," said Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project for the Pew Center on the States. "There are two things, and two things only that determine the size and cost of the prison system."

Dealing out longer sentences and putting more people behind bars have been the hallmarks of Southern states, he said.

America's record prison population has had a huge budgetary effect, according to the report, with increased corrections spending outstripping everything at the state level except for Medicaid.

Gelb said prison costs 22 times more than community-based corrections.

"If you talk to judges and prosecutors practically anywhere in this country, they will tell you if they had stronger community corrections, they wouldn't have to send so many people [to prison] for so many low-level offenses," he said.

For California, it has meant overcrowded prisons. In February, federal judges tentatively ruled that California must reduce the number of inmates in its prison system by up to 40 percent to stop a constitutional violation of prisoners' rights.

Implementing the court's ruling would result in up to 58,000 prisoners being released, said Matthew Cate, California's corrections and rehabilitation secretary, describing it as a threat to public safety.

The Pew Center on the States, through its Public Safety Performance Project, says it promotes "fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices in sentencing and corrections that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control corrections costs."

Sheer madness. It's interesting how so many really bad social trends have their beginnings around 1980 or so, when Reagan took power, yet nobody is willing to tie this era of Reaganism to any of these bad trends.

[Ziggy Stardust]

So we almost have the equivalent of the entire population of Switzerland behind bars, then? I'm sure I can find some Republican apologist who will twist this somehow to make Reagan look like God.

[erik_t]

To be clear, 7.3 million US residents were in jail at some time in 2007. I don't believe the total number in jail at any one time was that high.

Not to defend this asinine situation.

[born in shadow]

Sheer madness. It's interesting how so many really bad social trends have their beginnings around 1980 or so, when Reagan took power, yet nobody is willing to tie this era of Reaganism to any of these bad trends.

[sarcasm] What are you talking about? Bad trends? It's because of Reagan we threw all those criminals and blacks in jail! He did what thoes wussy liberals couldn't! [/sarcasm]

More seriously, 1 in 31 adults? That's...disgusting. Of course, Georgia is even worse...

The issue is just like it says in the article, people going to prison for minor offenses. It's not just murderers, rapists and thieves in jail, you've got the people who are harmless, but breaking the law. I don't see why you'd throw someone who is doing drugs in jail, rather than rehabilitating them. Maybe some people still think Reefer Madness is an accurate look at the habits of anyone who does drugs

-Aaron

[Forum Troll]

To be clear, 7.3 million US residents were in jail at some time in 2007. I don't believe the total number in jail at any one time was that high.

True. The 7.3 million figure would include those who were in jail for a few days sometime during the year.

Checking the U.S. DOJ, about 2.3 million prisoners at a time are held in federal or state prisons or in local jails.

Of those, 0.4 million in federal and state prisons are held for drug offenses. (Unlike the earlier figure, that is not counting the number in local jails for drug offenses, so, if somebody wanted to look the figure up, such would be helpful).

Although less of the total than I would have guessed, if you legalized drugs under heavy regulation, you could have a large portion of a million fewer people incarcerated.

Crime is down at least:

Since the 2.3 million people in jail are mostly young able-bodied men, such would amount to multiple percent of the total potential U.S. workforce. The Federal Prison Industries program is said to produce $0.5 billion of products a year, yet that's pretty small compared to the number of inmates even in federal prisons alone, so apparently most must not be working.

[Forum Troll]

BTW, does anybody know the policies for how prisoners are dealt with after release?

It probably varies by state, but I'm wondering how much it is typical to just drop released prisoners on the streets, versus actually providing them with a shelter, physical address, and job search assistance for at least a month or two afterward.

Getting a job isn't easy without a mailing address and a place to live at least until the first actual paycheck arrives after weeks of work, and, without that, returning to crime if desperate for fast income would be exceptionally attractive.

[Ypoknons]

That's the population of Hong Kong and almost the size of New York. It has more an impact for me if I think of it that way, in any case.

[Big Phil]

It was 1 in 77 in 1982 (1.3%), and 1 in 31 in 2007 (3.2%). At the same time the crime rate has gone down from ~48/1000 to ~20/thousand (based on Forum Troll's data).

Taken without any analysis, there's a strong argument that the crime rate is down because criminals are being put in jail. I would question the causation there, but the correlation is clear. What other reasons could be contributing to the decline in the crime rate, other than incarceration?

[RedImperator]

The DOJ says there were 156,000 people in jail for drug related offenses in 2002. Source. So added to the DOJ's state and Federal drug prisoners, and you're looking at half a million incarcerated on drug crimes alone. This doesn't count offenders who committed violent crimes related to the drug trade, or property crimes committed to fund drug habits.

At an average cost of $30,000 per prisoner per year, you're looking at approximately ten and a half billion dollars spent on incarceration costs per year just for drug offenders. Even discounting people in local jails (who often serve less than a year), it's still over ten billion dollars, much of it borne by the states, who don't have the luxury of running to their Chinese bankers for a loan every time the budget goes into the red.

[Adrian Laguna]

Taken without any analysis, there's a strong argument that the crime rate is down because criminals are being put in jail. I would question the causation there, but the correlation is clear.

Is it? The increases in incarceration occurred in the early 1980s, but you don't get the large drop until the mid-1990s. I find it difficult to believe that it took a decade and a half for the effects to be felt.

What other reasons could be contributing to the decline in the crime rate, other than incarceration?

Abortion was legalized nation wide in 1973, that would cause a sharp decline of young adults who were born as unwanted children in the early and mid 90s. Also the crack bubble burst around that time, and a lot of violent crime occurs in inner city ghettos, so a decline in the drug trade would have an effect.

[Kitsune]

It was 1 in 77 in 1982 (1.3%), and 1 in 31 in 2007 (3.2%). At the same time the crime rate has gone down from ~48/1000 to ~20/thousand (based on Forum Troll's data).

Taken without any analysis, there's a strong argument that the crime rate is down because criminals are being put in jail. I would question the causation there, but the correlation is clear. What other reasons could be contributing to the decline in the crime rate, other than incarceration?

There may be a very serious problem with that....New England (especially the more Rural states) are listed as the lowest incarceration....Well, they also have the lowest crime rates. [FBI statistics.]

[Ryan Thunder]

It was 1 in 77 in 1982 (1.3%), and 1 in 31 in 2007 (3.2%). At the same time the crime rate has gone down from ~48/1000 to ~20/thousand (based on Forum Troll's data).

Taken without any analysis, there's a strong argument that the crime rate is down because criminals are being put in jail. I would question the causation there, but the correlation is clear. What other reasons could be contributing to the decline in the crime rate, other than incarceration?

There may be a very serious problem with that....New England (especially the more Rural states) are listed as the lowest incarceration....Well, they also have the lowest crime rates. [FBI statistics.]

Compare the ratio of crime rate to incarceration rate between states. That will probably give you a better idea.

[Forum Troll]

There may be a very serious problem with that....New England (especially the more Rural states) are listed as the lowest incarceration....Well, they also have the lowest crime rates. [FBI statistics.]

New England has less poverty, so we would expect less crime. Fewer criminals committing crimes leads to fewer criminals having to be put in prison.

[Kitsune]

Compare the ratio of crime rate to incarceration rate between states. That will probably give you a better idea.

Well, I was already trying to show that......
I have a US Census from 2004

If you note, New Hampshire, which was the lowest incarceration is 47 in number of violent crimes. Georgia is actually only around average for number of violent crimes committed but South Carolina is another story

[Forum Troll]

Is it? The increases in incarceration occurred in the early 1980s, but you don't get the large drop until the mid-1990s. I find it difficult to believe that it took a decade and a half for the effects to be felt.

The increase in incarceration didn't reach 0.3 million violent-offense criminals in state prisons (not counting here local & federal) at a time until about 1990, but then reached 0.6 million violent-offense criminals in them by the year 2000.

With that said, I certainly would agree that there are multiple major influences here, not just incarceration rates alone.


U.S. DOJ

Abortion was legalized nation wide in 1973, that would cause a sharp decline of young adults who were born as unwanted children in the early and mid 90s. Also the crack bubble burst around that time, and a lot of violent crime occurs in inner city ghettos, so a decline in the drug trade would have an effect.

Yes, those would be among the major influences. Even demographics in general has some effect, like the fraction of the total population consisting of men ages 15-29 declined by 10.5% in just ten years between 1990 and 2000 (census). Like most things, it is a number of factors in combination.

I looked up a little more data on the prison population. Out of the 2.3 million total in U.S. prisons and jails at a time (ranging from local jails to state prisons to federal prisons), there were 1.297 million in state prisons in 2005.

The breakdown by offense for the portion of the 1.3 million in state prisons with sentences of more than 1 year was:

Murder and manslaughter 14.2%
Rape and other sexual assault 12.7%
Robbery, assault, and other violent crimes 26.2%
Property offenses (predominantly burglary) 19.2%
Drug offenses 19.5%
Public-order offenses and other 8.2%
U.S. DOJ

The percentage in local jails for milder offenses would be higher, since state prisons often have more serious offenders.

So, among those in state prisons, there seems to be around 1/3rd particularly dangerous criminals you wouldn't want out on the streets again anytime soon (murderers, rapists, and serious violent assault), but many of the others might be suitable for reduced prison sentences in exchange for more rehabilitation, as could changing policy on the drug war help tens of percent.

[Forum Troll]

The DOJ says there were 156,000 people in jail for drug related offenses in 2002. Source. So added to the DOJ's state and Federal drug prisoners, and you're looking at half a million incarcerated on drug crimes alone. This doesn't count offenders who committed violent crimes related to the drug trade, or property crimes committed to fund drug habits.

Yes, indeed.

The alcohol Prohibition of the 1920s surged the ranks of gangs and the profitability of crime in a manner causing far more than excess alcohol offenses alone.

Likewise, the total incarcerated either directly or indirectly because of the drug war must be above the half-million in there on drug offenses directly.