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1987 Prisoners in 1 (1987)

handle is hein.death/prsin1987 and id is 1 raw text is: --  U.S. Department of Justice
tS    Bureau of Justice Statistics

Bueuo Jutc  Sttsis
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Prisoners in 198.7

The number of prisoners under the
jurisdiction of Federal and State
correctional authorities at yearend
1987 reached a record,5L1,609. The
States and the District of Columbia
added 32,584 prisoners; the Federal
system, 3,892. The increase for 1987
brings total growth in the prison pop-
ulation since 1980 to nearly 252,000
inmates--an increase of about 76% in
the 7-year period (table 1).
The 1987 growth rate (6.7%) was less
than the percentage increase recorded
during 1986 (8.5%), and the number of
new prisoners added during 1987,
36,476, was about 6,000 less than the
number added during the preceding year
(42,626). 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 1987, growing by
6.7% 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).
Table 1. Change in the State and Federal
prison populations, 1980-87
Total
Number     Annual  percent
of        percent change
Year    inmates    change  since 1980
1980     329,921
1981     369,930     12.2%   12.2%
1982     413,806     11.9    25.5
1983     437,248      5.7    32.6
1984     464,567      6.2    40.9
1985     502,507      8.2    52.4
1986     545,133      8.5    65.3
1987     581,609      6.7    76.3
Note: All counts are for December 31 of each
year and may differ from previously reported
numbers because of revision.

The number of sentenced Federal
prisoners continued to grow at a faster
rate than sentenced prisoners in the
States during the year (8.2% vs. 6.5%).
Among the 8,777 Federal prisoners with
no sentences or sentences of 1 year or
less were 2,384 under the jurisdiction of
the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, an increase of 26 over the
number held at the end of 1986 (2,358).
Nearly 77% of the total Federal in-
crease occurred among those with sen-
tences greater than 1 year; however,
those with sentences less than 1 year or
who were unsentenced grew by 11.4%,
compared to 8.2% growth for sentenced
prisoners during the year.
In four States total prison populations
decreased during 1987; however, in two
of these States the decreases were
small (a total of 50 inmates). The num-
ber of prisoners in Washington con-
tinued to decline for the second year in
a row, and North Carolina reported a
2.5% decline after an increase in 1986.
Total prison populations rose most
rapidly during 1987 in Colorado (26.4%),
Arizona (16%), Arkansas (15.8%),
Michigan (15.1%), and Oregon (14.9%).
Twelve States reported total prisoner
increases of 10% or more, compared to
the end of 1986. California's increase
of nearly 7,500 additional prisoners was
the largest single gain among the re-
porting jurisdictions and accounted for
nearly 21% of the increase in the Na-
tion (at the end of 1986, 10.9% of all
prisoners in the Nation were in Cali-
fornia). During 1987 Michigan's prison
population continued a period of rapid
expansion--the annual increase in 1984
was less than 1%, compared to annual
increases of 21.6% in 1985, 16.8% in
1986, and 15.1% in 1987.

April 1988
This bulletin presents population
counts for the Nation's prisons on
December 31, 1987. The number
of prisoners increased by more
than 34,000 during the year, well
below the record increases of
43,000 in 1982 and 198,6. The
number of prisoners present at
yearend, however, again set a new
record for the 13th consecutive
, time.
During the next several months,
BJS will be releasing a compilation
of historical prisoner counts for
each State, the District of Colum-
bia, and the Federal prison system
covering each year since 1925.
This collection will also be made
available in machine-readable for-
mat through the Criminal Justice
Archive at the University of
Michigan.
I want to offer my deepest
appreciation to the departments of
corrections in the 50 States and
the District of Columbia and the
Federal Prison System, who make
it possible for BJS to continue to
gather and report data on the
Nation's prisoners.
Steven R. Schlesinger
Director
Rates of incarceration increase
On December 31, 1987, the number
of sentenced prisoners per 100,000
residents was 228, also setting a new
record. Twelve of the 19 jurisdictions
equal to or greater than the rate for
the Nation were located in the South, 4
in the West, 2 in the Midwest, and 1 in
the Northeast.

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