Controlling the Prison Population According

Controlling the Prison Population According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2,131,180 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails in 2003 (Prison pp). There were an estimated 486 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, up from 411 in 1995 (Prison pp). The number of women incarcerated in State or Federal prisons increased 2.9%, while men rose 2.0% (Prison pp).

At midyear 2004 "there were 4,919 black male prison and jail inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,717 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 717 white male inmates per 100,000 white males" (Prison pp). The exploding prison population has been blamed on public policy changes that have increased the use of prison sentences as well as the length of time served, through mandatory minimum sentencing, three strikes laws, and reductions in the availability of parole or early release (Incarcerated pp).

In 2002, America's prison population grew again despite a declining crime rate, costing the federal government an estimated $40 billion a year (Anderson pp). According to experts, mandatory sentences, particularly for nonviolent drug offenders, are a major reason that the inmate populations have risen for thirty years (Anderson pp). Approximately one of every 143 U.S. residents was in federal, state, or local custody by the end of 2002 (Anderson pp).

Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas American Civil Liberties Union, believes, "The nation needs to break the chains of our addiction to prison, and find less costly and more effective policies like treatment...We need to break the cycle" (Anderson pp). According to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to prison, reports that based on 2002 figures it costs roughly $20,000 per year to house, feed, and care for a prison inmate, or about $40 billion nationwide, and construction costs run about $100,000 per cell (Anderson pp).

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that even as these costs keep climbing, the federal government is tackling a giant budget deficit and 31 states in 2003 were forced to cut spending across all programs to deal with the shortfalls (Anderson pp). Jason Zeidenberg, director of policy and research for the Justice Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on ending reliance on incarceration, said, "The prison population and budget figures, taken together, should be setting off alarm bells in state capitols" (Anderson pp).

Drug offenders now account for more than half of all federal prisoners (Anderson pp). With its tough sentencing policies for drug offenses, the federal penal system is now the nation's largest, up 4.2% compared with 2001, while state prison and jail populations grew just 2.4% over the same period (Anderson pp). Prison alternative advocates credit moves in some states to divert drug offenders to treatment programs and other innovations for the lower growth rate (Anderson pp).

For example, Texas recently passed a drug treatment alternative law and as a result its prison population remained virtually unchanged from 2001 to 2002, and Ohio, which revised its sentencing and parole guidelines in the late 1990's, had its prison and jail population rise only 0.8% in 2002, compared with 1.9% for the Midwest as a whole (Anderson pp). The Justice Department report states that seventeen states had increases of at least 5% year-to-year in their prison populations, with Maine's increasing by 11.5% and Rhode Island's rising 8.6% (Anderson pp).

The United States has incarcerated 726 people per 100,000 of its population, which is seven to ten times as many as most other democracies, such as England with its 142 per 100,000, and France at 91 per 100,000 and Japan at 58 per 100,000 (U.S. pp). According to statistics, 12.6% of black males in their late twenties are currently incarcerated, compared to 3.6% Hispanic males, and 1.7% white males (U.S. pp). "Unless we promote alternatives to prison, the nation will continue to lead the world in imprisonment," says Ziedenberg (U.S. pp).

According to the Justice Department, violent crime fell by over 33% from 1994 to 2003 and property crimes fell by 23%, yet the prison population has continued to climb, increasing an annual average of 3.5% since 1995 (U.S. pp). This is partly due to high recidivism because within three years of their release, two of every three prisoners are back behind bars (U.S. pp). Criminologists attribute the prison population growth to "get tough on crime" policies that have subjected hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug and property offenders to long mandatory sentences (U.S.

pp). Malcolm Young of the Sentencing Project, says, "We have to be concerned about an overloaded system which sentences many offenders quickly and is not dong a good job of sorting out people who should be incarcerated from people for whom other responses would produce better, less expensive results" (U.S. pp). The rise in the prison population varies by state, yet since 1998, twelve states experienced stable or declining incarceration rates but crime rates in those states declined at the same rates as in the other thirty-eight (U.S. pp).

Young says, "We're working under the burden of laws and practices that have developed over 30 years that have focused on punishment and prison as our primary response to crime" (McDonough pp). According to Young, the prison population could be lowered by introducing drug treatment programs that offer effective ways of changing behavior and by providing appropriate assistance for the mentally ill (McDonough pp). Sixty-one percent of prison and jail inmates in 2004 were of racial or ethnic minorities (McDonough pp).

An in-depth analysis of the impact of Arizona's sentencing laws found that the state's rigid mandatory sentencing laws fill prison cells and cost millions while doing little to enhance public safety (Mandatory pp). "Arizona Prison Crisis: A Call for Smart on Crime Solutions" found that the mandatory sentencing laws are largely to blame for the growth in incarceration of non-violent offenders, who account for over half of al prisoners (Mandatory pp).

According to the report, one in four prisoners are incarcerated for a property offense, one in five for a drug offense, and one in twelve for driving under the influence (Mandatory pp). Arizona Prison Crisis" provides policymakers with the first detailed look at the state's prison population and the specific laws that fuel the current overcrowding crisis (Mandatory pp).

The report, authored by noted criminal justice researchers, Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis of Justice Strategies, "paints a portrait of a prison system packed with non-violent and low-level offenders, including substances abusers, disproportionate numbers of people of color and a rapidly growing population of women" (Mandatory pp). The report outline comprehensive suggestions for sentencing reform.