Sentencing and Corrections - Corrections In The United States

In 2002 about 6.7 million Americans, or about 3.1 percent of the adult population of the United States, were under some form of correction supervision (prison, jail, probation, and parole). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, by December 31, 2001, over two million persons (2,166,260) were incarcerated in federal, state, and local correctional facilities in the United States. Of those, about two-thirds (1,440,655) were in federal or state custody, while some 665,475 were held in local jails. Most prisoners in federal and state prisons are incarcerated in the South (574,174), the most populous region of the nation, followed by the West (281,743), the Midwest (245,303), and the Northeast (175,907). (See Table 6.3.) The other 4.5 million people under some form of correction supervision were either on probation or paroled. Probation and parole consist of court ordered community supervision of convicted offenders by law enforcement agencies, though probation is usually given in place of incarceration and parole is obtained after a period of

TABLE 6.3
Prisoners under jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, by region and jurisdiction, year end 2001–02

	Total			Percent change
Region and jurisdiction	12/31/01	6/30/02	12/31/01	12/31/01–06/30/02	6/30/02–12/31/02
South	574,174	564,592	560,352	2.5%	1.7%
Alabama	27,947	27,495	26,741	4.5	1.6
Arkansas	13,090	12,655	12,594	3.9	3.4
Delaware1	6,778	6,957	7,003	−3.2	−2.6
Florida2	75,210	73,553	72,404	3.9	2.3
Georgia2	47,445	46,417	45,937	3.3	2.2
Kentucky	15,933	16,172	15,424	3.3	−1.5
Louisiana	35,736	36,171	35,810	−0.2	−1.2
Maryland	24,162	24,329	23,752	1.7	−0.7
Mississippi	22,705	22,001	21,460	5.8	3.2
North Carolina	32,803	32,755	32,253	1.7	0.1
Oklahoma	23,385	23,435	22,780	2.7	−0.2
South Carolina	23,715	23,017	22,576	5.0	3.0
Tennessee	24,989	24,277	23,671	5.6	2.9
Texas	162,003	158,131	162,070	0.0	2.4
Virginia	33,729	32,739	31,662	6.5	3.0
West Virginia	4,544	4,488	4,215	7.8	1.2
West	281,743	277,828	273,409	3.0%	1.4%
Alaska1	4,398	4,205	4,571	−3.8	4.6
Arizona2	29,359	29,103	27,710	6.0	0.9
California	162,317	160,315	159,444	1.8	1.2
Colorado	18,833	18,320	17,448	7.9	2.8
Hawaii1	5,423	5,541	5,431	−0.1	2.1
Idaho	6,204	5,802	5,984	3.7	6.9
Montana	3,290	3,515	3,328	−1.1	−6.4
Nevada	10,478	10,426	10,233	2.4	0.5
New Mexico	5,989	5,875	5,668	5.7	1.9
Oregon	12,086	11,812	11,410	5.9	2.3
Utah	5,567	5,353	5,339	4.3	4.0
Washington	16,062	15,829	15,159	6.0	1.5
Wyoming	1,737	1,732	1,684	3.1	0.3
Note: As of December 31, 2001, the transfer of responsibility for sentenced felons from the District of Columbia to the Federal Bureau of Prisons was completed. The District of Columbia no longer operates a prison system and has been excluded from NPS.
1Prisons and jails form one integrated system. Data include total jail and prison population.
2Population figures are based on custody counts.
SOURCE: Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, Table 3: "Prisoners under the Jurisdiction of State or Federal Correctional Authorities, by Region and Jurisdiction, Yearend 2001 to 2002," in "Prisoners in 2002," Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, July 2003

incarceration. Both usually require the offender to follow specific rules of conduct while in the community.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2002 there were 3,437 sentenced African-American male inmates per 100,000 African-American males in the United States, compared to 1,176 sentenced Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 450 white male inmates per 100,000 white males. African-American males in their twenties and thirties had much higher rates of incarceration compared to other ethnic and age groups. Of the 1.29 million offenders in local jails or prison in 2002, some 442,300 (34 percent) were black males between the ages of 20 and 39. In terms of the general population, 10.4 percent of all African-American non-Hispanic males from 25 to 29 years of age were in prison or jail in 2002, compared to 2.4 percent of Hispanic males, and 1.2 percent of white males in the same age group.

TABLE 6.4
Number of sentenced inmates in federal prisons, by most serious offense, 1995, 2000, and 2001

	Number of sentenced inmates in federal prisons
Offense	1995	2000	2001	Percent change, 1995–2001	Percent of total growth, 1995–2001
Total	88,658	131,739	142,766	61.0%	100.0%
Violent offenses	11,409	13,740	16,117	41.3%	8.7%
Homicide1	1,068	1,363	2,364	121.3	2.4
Robbery	8,377	9,712	10,218	22.0	3.4
Other violent	1,964	2,665	3,535	80.0	2.9
Property offenses	7,842	10,135	10,664	36.0%	5.2%
Burglary	177	462	642	262.7	0.9
Fraud	5,823	7,506	7,617	30.8	3.3
Other property	1,842	2,167	2,405	30.6	1.0
Drug offenses	52,782	74,276	78,501	48.7%	47.5%
Public-order offenses	15,655	32,325	36,443	132.8%	38.4%
Immigration	3,420	13,676	15,012	338.9	21.4
Weapons	7,446	10,822	12,539	68.4	9.4
Other public-order	4,789	7,827	8,892	85.7	7.6
Other/unknown2	970	1,263	1,041	7.3%	0.1%
Note: All data are from the BJS Federal justice database. Data are for September 30 and based on sentenced inmates, regardless of sentence length.
1Includes murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, and negligent manslaughter.
2Includes offenses not classifiable.
SOURCE: Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, "Table 18: Number of Sentenced Inmates in Federal Prisons by Most Serious Offense, 1995, 2000, and 2001," in "Prisoners in 2002," Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, July 2003

Prisons and Jails—How Do They Differ?

The terms "prison" and "jail" are frequently used interchangeably. Jails, however, are generally city or county institutions while prisons are usually state or federal institutions. Jails are used to confine adults serving short sentences (generally one year or less) or persons awaiting trial or other legal disposition. Prisons, on the other hand, house convicted criminals sentenced to lengthy terms.

The Growth in the Incarceration Rate

From 1980 to 2000 there were increases among all four groups of adult correctional populations in the United States, with the incarceration rate tripling. The number of prisoners on death row increased over five times, from 692 to 3,593, in that 20-year period. As of 2002, the incarceration rate was 476 per 100,000 U.S. residents, an increase from 411 per 100,000 residents in 1995. Annually, between 1995 and 2001, the incarcerated population grew an average of 3.6 percent. In 2002 the growth rate dropped to 2.6 percent.

The United States has a larger share of its population in prison, on parole, or on probation than any other nation. Marc Mauer, in Comparative International Rates of Incarceration: An Examination of Causes and Trends (The Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C., 2003), compared prison populations and practices around the world. Statistics provided by the Sentencing Project show that in 2002, the incarceration rate (including prisoners, parolees, and probationers) in Russia was 628 per 100,000 persons, while the U.S. rate was 702 per 100,000 persons. The next closest country was South Africa, with an incarceration rate of 400, followed by the United Kingdom (139), Spain (125), Canada (116), and Australia (112).

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, drug offenders (246,100) make up the largest percentage of the U.S. federal prison population. In 2001 they constituted 55 percent of the federal prison population, down from 60 percent in 1995. Immigration violators account for 10 percent of the federal prison population, an increase of 339 percent since 1995. (See Table 6.4.) Male prisoners (93.6 percent) far outnumbered female prisoners (6.4 percent) in 2002. (See Table 6.5.)