The incarceration rate of prisoners in 2003 was 482 per 100,000 residents, an increase from 411 in 1995. Among those states exceeding the national incarceration rate were Louisiana (801), Mississippi (768), Texas (702), and Oklahoma (636). Maine (149), Minnesota (155), and North Dakota (181) were among the lowest rates. (See Table 4.2.)
The inmate population in the United States is measured by the rate of incarceration—that is, the number of people sent by the courts to prisons and jails per 100,000 people in the general population. As reported by The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group promoting alternatives to incarceration, in U.S. Prison Populations—Trends and Implications (Washington, DC, December 2004), the …
The Bureau of Justice Statistics conducts a census of prisons at five-year intervals. As reported in Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2000 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, August 2003), 1,320 state prisons housed 1,101,202 inmates and eighty-four federal facilities housed 110,974—for a total count of 1,404 prisons and slightly more than 1.2 million prisoners. State prisons…
Felonies, the most serious type of crime, are often punished with a prison sentence. Data on felony convictions at the state level tend to be reported later than data on prisoners, but trends can be discerned after a lag in time. Between 1994 and 2002, felony convictions in state courts increased from 872,220 to 1,051,000, an increase of 20%. (See Table 4.5.) During the same period, prisoners held…
Rising prison populations and the need to expand the prison system in the states has led to calls for privatization in this sphere as in others (telecommunications, FIGURE 4.1 Percent of convicted felons who received a prison sentence, 1994–2002 SOURCE: Adapted from Matthew R. Durose and Patrick A. Langan, "Percent of Convicted Felons Who Received a Prison Sentence, 1994–…
Work in fields, laundries, and kitchens has always been a part of many inmates' lives; some even participate in work-release programs. According to the 1995 BJS census of correctional facilities, the last such census published, more than 94% of all prisons operated inmate work programs. About 63% of state inmates and 90% of federal inmates participated in some type of work program. State an…
UNICOR is the trade name for Federal Prison Industries, Inc., the government corporation that employs inmates in federal prisons. UNICOR should not be confused with state prison industry programs administered by the states. Under UNICOR, established in 1934, federal inmates get job training by producing goods and services for federal agencies. In 2005 items produced by inmates included industrial …
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