THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608190036
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 76 lines
The flood of men and women into America's jails and prisons continued last year, bringing their total to more than double the inmate count in 1985, the Justice Department said Sunday.
Rapid prison population growth in recent years reflects a national wave of tough anti-drug laws, and laws that penalize repeat offenders and set specific prison terms.
The number of men and women in the nation's prisons and jails climbed to nearly 1.6 million last year.
By the end of 1995, one out of every 167 Americans was in prison or jail, compared to 1 out of every 320 a decade earlier, according to the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Prison populations were also expected to grow in Virginia, where Gov. George F. Allen has made crime and punishment a cornerstone of his administration.
He spearheaded the toughening of sentencing in Virginia, the elimination of parole and the treatment of more teenage criminals as adults with longer jail stays for their crimes. That's boosted the state prison population and required expanded prison building.
In Hampton Roads, the local jail population also is burgeoning, prompting a spate of jail construction.
In the next year, Hampton Roads will have about 1,500 new jailhouse beds as major additions to the Norfolk and Chesapeake jails are completed and a new four-city regional jail opens in Portsmouth.
Even then, officials believe, there won't be enough to meet the growing demand.
The world's highest incarceration rate has seesawed in recent years between the United States and Russia, with both far outdistancing other nations.
The bureau said that as of last Dec. 31 there were 1,078,357 men and women in federal and state prisons, which usually house sentenced prisoners serving more than one year. That was an increase of 86,745 over the previous year, or 8.7 percent, slightly above the average annual growth rate during the past five years.
As of June 30, 1995, the most recent date for which figures are available, there were 507,044 men and women in local jails, which normally hold people awaiting trial or serving less than one-year sentences. That was an increase of 20,570, or 4.2 percent., slightly below the average annual growth rate during the last five years.
That total number of inmates in custody has more than doubled since 1985, up 113 percent. The rate of incarceration has grown from 313 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents in 1985 to 600 inmates per 100,000 in 1995.
The bureau also reported that:
A spate of jail construction has eased overcrowding at the local level, but state and federal prisons continue to be jammed beyond capacity.
State prisons at the end of 1995 held between 14 percent and 25 percent more inmates than they were designed for. And federal prisons were 26 percent above capacity.
The combined federal, state and local systems have had to house an additional 841,200 inmates since 1985, or more than 1,618 new beds every week.
Women accounted for 6.1 percent of all state and federal inmates and 10.2 percent of those in local jails.
An estimated 7,888 youths under age 18 were held in local jails last year, a 17 percent increase over the year before. More than three-quarters of these juveniles had been tried or were awaiting trial as adults.
Overall, the number of people actually behind bars grew at a slightly faster rate in 1995 than in earlier years.
The total behind bars increased 7.3 percent, up 8.7 percent in federal and state prisons and 4.2 percent in jails. Over the past five years, the annual average growth has been 6.7 percent overall, 7.7 percent in federal and state prisons, and 4.6 percent in jails. MEMO: The Associated Press, Knight-Ridder News Service and staff writer
Steve Stone contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Color graphic by KRT
U.S Prison Primer
KEYWORDS: PRISON POPULATION VIRGINIA HAMPTON ROADS UNITED
STATES STATISTICS by CNB