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1 Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on December 31, 1979: Advance Report [1] (1979)

handle is hein.death/psfadv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Departnent of Justice J &uru of Justice Statistics P 0 Prisoners 1979 in State and Federal Institutions on December 31 National Prisoner Statistics Bulletin SD-NPS-PSF-7A, May 1980 The latest national prisoner count produced a record high of 314,000 imprisoned persons. More States than ever housed inmates in local jails to alleviate overcrowding in State prison systems. These developments marked a year in which the annual growth rate in the number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of State and Federal correctional authorities appeared to have leveled off just above 2 per- cent. A few jurisdictions with more substantial increases in inmates reported diminished use of probation and parole. Although the number of prisoners under the juris- diction of State and Federal correctional authorities on December 31, 1979, was a record for the fifth year in a row, the 2.3-percent increase over the 1978 yearend count was virtually unchanged from that recorded in the preceding year. I Inmates in State institutions increased by 3.8 per- cent, slightly higher than the 3.5 figure for 1978. For the second year in a row, Federal institutions experienced a net reduction in the number of prisoners, reflecting the continued high priority accorded to efforts to relieve over- crowding and to the prosecution of individuals implicated in white collar and organized crime. Such cases require longer processing time and result in relatively fewer commitments. The exceptionally high rate of growth in the prison population sustained in 1975 and 1976 was moderated in 1977 and 1978 and appears to have leveled off in 1979. 'Nonetheless, over the past 5 years the prison population has increased by about a third, adding some 76,000 in- mates to the Nation's prisons. The slowdown in the growth of the overall prison population did not occur uniformly in all States. Of the 40 jurisdictions that registered increases in 1979, 31 did so at a pace higher than the average for State institutions. In all, 13 States had increases of 10 percent or more. Of these, those with the largest prisoner populations (Indiana, Mississippi, Oregon, and Tennessee) attributed their in- creases to large numbers of new court commitments, often stemming from the reluctance of judges to impose probation as an alternative to incarceration. 2 In addition, some States were granting fewer releases on parole. Texas continued to hold the largest number of prison- ers (26,522), followed by California (22,628) and New York (21,158). Together, these three States accounted for two- fifths of the total increase in the State prison population. Advance Report Florida, the fourth-ranking State with 20,133 prisoners, had a 6-percent decline, largely because the retroactive application of new parole guidelines resulted in a large num- ber of releases. On a regional basis, the West, as in 1978, had the highest relative increase in prisoners (5 percent) and the North Central area had the lowest (2 percent). Both had lower increases than in 1978, while the Northeast and the South, each with a 4-percent rise, experienced higher growth than a year earlier. For the second consecutive year, the relative in- crease for women prisoners was about half that of the pre- vious year, and for the first time in almost a decade it was lower than that for men--1.5 vs. 2.3 percent. Triggered by a 27-percent drop in the number of imprisoned women with short sentences or no sentences, the relatively low overall rise contrasted sharply with the extremely high in- creases registered from 1974 through 1976. However, the number of women serving sentences of more than a year rose appreciably (4.2 percent). As a proportion of all State and Federal prisoners, the number of women inmates remained at 4 percent. Correctional authorities in 15 States, the largest number on record, housed some prisoners in local jails because of overcrowding in State-operated facilities. The total number of such prisoners (6,421) accounted for 2 percent of the entire State prisoner population, almost the same as in the previous year. Prisoners with sentences of more than 1 year, who accounted for 96 percent of all inmates, increased by 3 percent. Those with shorter or no sentences dropped 5 percent, continuing the steady decline registered by this group over the past several years. All of this decline occurred at the State level, with the l-percent State decrease partially offset by an l-percent Federal in- crease. State prisoners with sentences of over 1 year, the single largest segment of the Nation's prison popu- lation, increased .by exactly the same proportion as in 1978--4.3 percent. Additional details from the 1979 inmate count will be contained in a final report to be published this year. Data in this report were collected through the National Prisoner Statistics program for the Bureau of Justice Statistics by the Bureau of the Census. 'Yearend 1978 prisoner counts shown in the accompany- ing table may differ from those found in Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on December 31, 1978, because reporting officials are given the opportunity to update NPS records. All data in this report are prelimi- nary and subject to revision. 2The observation excludes States with a combined jail/ prison system. Connecticut actually had a larger overall inmate population than Mississippi or Oregon, but its in- crease centered on inmates with sentences of a year or less, whose number rose by 45 percent. 3Examples of unsentenced inmates are those held for safekeeping, those undergoing presentencing evaluation, narcotics addicts under civil (i.e., non-criminal) commit- ment, and, in the seven jurisdictions operating a combined jail/prison system, those held awaiting trial or sentencing. ! II i 0

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