« Editorial NY Times: Gitmos Across America | Main | CA: Here's an idea!: Rehabilitation programs can cut prisons cost, report says »
June 28, 2007
Justice Department Numbers Show "Alarming Growth" in Incarceration. Links to BJS report
New Justice Department numbers show "alarming growth" in incarceration, with biggest increase since 2000;
California responsible for 1 out of 5 new people in prison last year; first increase in the number of youth in adult prisons in over a decade
June 28, 2007 Justice Policy Institute
WASHINGTON, D.C. -After six years of a slowing prison and jail population growth, new statistics released yesterday from the Justice Department show an alarming increase in incarceration across the U.S.
Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006, a new survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the midyear that accounts for prison and jail growth at midyear, found that "in both absolute numbers and percent change, the increase was the largest since midyear 2000." The new survey showed that about 6 out of 10 people in prison and jail were African American or Latino, and that nearly 5 percent of African American men were in prison or jail. One out of every five new people added to prison in the United States were in California. The data also shows that for the first time in over a decade (since 1995), the number of youth in adult prisons has increased. Illinois, Connecticut and Delaware have
recently taken steps to reduce the number of youth tried as adults.
"Once again, communities of color are paying for our troubled criminal justice policies," said Jason Ziedenberg, Executive Director of the Justice Policy Institute. "The population increase in the already overburdened prison system indicates an alarming growth that should not go unchecked. Billions of public safety dollars are absorbed by prison expansion and limits the nation's ability to focus on more effective strategies to promote public safety."
(http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/pjim06.htm link to BJS report)
When considering the growth, JPI points out that:
There is little relationship between prison growth and change in violent crime. Coming just weeks after the Justice Department released its preliminary crime statistics for 2006, regional imbalance in the growth of prison populations underscore how little relationship there is between crime and the use of incarceration. The two regions that experienced the least change in prison populations (the Northeast, +1.7 percent, and the South, +1.2 percent) either experienced a decline in violent crime, or marginal change in violent crime.1 By contrast, the West saw the biggest increase in violent crime of any region (+2.8 percent), and the biggest increase in the use of incarceration (5.2 percent). The Midwestern region also saw an increase in violent crime (+2.1), and prison growth (+3.0 percent).
Some states have reduced prison populations and closed prisons, and others have enacted billion dollar expansion plans. Some states and jurisdictions (8 out of 51) saw no growth, or declining prison populations. Maryland, where prison populations have been falling for the last 4 years, recently closed a prison, potentially saving the state tens of millions of dollars. By contrast, 20 percent of new prisoners added last year were in California, where numerous proposals to reduce prison sentences, reform parole, and provide more resources to drug- involved people in the criminal justice system failed to be enacted. California legislators recently voted for a multi-billion dollar prison expansion plan.
### The Justice Policy Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration and promoting effective and just solutions to social problems. http://www.justicepolicy.org
1The South saw a .06 percent increase in violent crime in 2006. The figures include sentenced prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities.
Posted by lois at June 28, 2007 11:37 AM