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1985 Prisoners in 1 (1985)

handle is hein.death/prsin1985 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Dipartment of Justice ',Bureau of Justice Statistics ~0 Buea ofJsieSaitc Bulei soners in 19 .85 The number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of Federal and State correctional authorities at yearend 1985 reached a record 503,601. The States and the District of Columbia added 33,074 prisoners, the Federal system, 5,960. The increase for 1985 brings total growth in the prison popu- lation since 1977 to more than 203,000 inmates-an increase of 68% in the 8- year period (table 1). The 1985 growth rate (8.4%) was higher than the percentage increases recorded in either 1983 or 1984 and represents the third largest increase in the absolute number of additional inmates since prisoner statistics were first collected in 1926. Prisoners with sentences of more than 1 year (referred to as sentenced prisoners) accounted for nearly 96% of the total prison popu- lation at the end of 1985, growing by 8.0% during the year (table 2). The remaining prisoners had sentences of a year or less or were unsentenced (those, for example, awaiting trial in States with combined prison-jail systems). The number of sentenced Federal prisoners grew at more than twice the rate of sentenced prisoners in the States during the year (18.5% vs. 7.3%). Among the 7,528 Federal pris- oners with no sentences or sentences of less than 1 year were 1,888 under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. More than 85% of the Federal increase, however, occurred among those with sentences greater than 1 year. Women inmates composed 4.6% (23,091) of the Nation's prisoners, increasing at a slightly faster rate (10.7%) than males (8.3%). The rate of incarceration for sentenced males (394 per 100,000 males in the resident popu- lation), however, was about 23 times higher than for sentenced females (17 per 100,000 females). Compared to 1984, the number of sentenced prisoners grew more slowly in 23 States, actually declining in 5 of these. Among the five with declines, Tennessee alone had declined in the previous year as well (11% in 1984; 5% in 1985). Conversely, three States with declines in 1984 had increases in 1985: Maine (down 2.4% in 1984, up 22.6% in 1985), Nebraska (down 1.0% in 1984, up 2.7% in 1985), and West Virginia (down 1.5% in 1984, and up 7.9% in 1985). In three States the sentenced pris- oner population increased by more than 20%: Maine (22.6%), Michigan (21.9%), and New Hampshire (21.7%). Three States, all Western, had increases between 15% and 20%: Montana (15.7%), California (15.6%), and June 1986 This bulletin presents the population counts for the Nation's prisons on December 31, 1985. An increase of more than 39,000 during 1985 brought the number of inmates in State and Federal prisons to more than half a million, an all-time record. The prison population has now grown for 11 consecutive years. This report would not be possible without the assistance of the depart- ments of correction in the 50 States and the District of Columbia and the Federal Prison System. I would like to express my appreciation for their continued support of the National Prisoner Statistics Program. Steven R. Schlesinger Director Alaska (15.0%). (For additional State comparisons, see table 3.) Regional variations persist During 1985 the growth in sentenced prisoner population in Western States (11.6%) and Midwestern States (10.9%) was more than twice the growth in Southern States (3.9%). Since 1980, sentenced prison populations in Western States have increased by nearly 90%, compared to 69% in the Northeast, 47% in the Midwest, and 37% in the South (table 4). Six States more than doubled their sentenced populations since 1980; four are in the West: Alaska (159.9%), Hawaii (128.8%), Nevada (112.6%), and California (107.5%). California's increase of more than 25,000 sentenced prisoners since 1980 accounts for 62% of the increase for the West and 16% of the entire national increase among the States since 1980. In 1980, 7.9% of the Nation's sentenced Table 1. Change in the State and Federal prison populations, 1977-85 Annual Total percent Year Number of inmates percent change change since 1977 1977 300,024 1978 307,276 2.4% 2.4% 1979 314,457 2.3 4.8 1980 329,821 4.9 9.9 1981 369,930 12.2 23.3 1982 413,806 11.9 37.9 1983 437,248 5.7 45.7 1984 464,567 6.2 54.8 1985 503,601 8.4 67.9 Note: All counts are for December 31 of each year and may differ from previously reported numbers because of revision.

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