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1 in 100 adults now in prison
2,319,258 Americans behind bars in 2008, most of any nation

From staff and wire reports 
February 29, 2008 

NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one in every
100 adults are in jail or prison, according to a new report
documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges
states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk
offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in
jail or prison at the start of 2008 - one in 99.1 adults. Whether per
capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

The report, released yesterday by the Pew Center on the States, said
the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up
from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for
prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending,
the report said.

The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped
states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a
clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.

Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said
budget woes are pressuring many states to consider cost-saving
corrections policies that might have been shunned in the past for fear
of appearing soft on crime.

"We're seeing more and more states being creative because of tight
budgets," she said. "They want to be tough on crime. They want to be a
law-and-order state. But they also want to save money, and they want
to be effective."

Some Maryland lawmakers said they hope the report will spur reforms in
drug-sentencing laws.

"We've been pounding the governor and chairmen of committees with this
information for almost five years," said Del. Curtis Anderson, a
Baltimore Democrat who has sponsored several bills that would lower
maximum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. "The fact that
somebody else is saying it and it's a national report might help us
wake them up to this issue."

There are 23,342 people incarcerated in Maryland, according to the Pew
report. "And roughly 70 percent of them are in prison for drug or
drug-related offenses," Anderson said. "And of that 70 percent, 92
percent are African-American."

Anderson said the Pew report was not surprising. "We have the highest
incarceration rate of every country in the world, including backward
and despotic countries like Cuba," he said. "The problem is that the
folks we put in jail aren't violent offenders or dangerous to society,
but mainly low-level drug users or drug dealers. The way we should be
dealing with these people is to put them into treatment, which is far
less expensive and much more effective."

Anderson, chairman of the city's legislative delegation, has proposed
a bill this session that would reduce mandatory sentences for some
drug offenses from 20 years to 10 years. The General Assembly passed a
similar bill last year, but it was vetoed by Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Anderson said he has been collaborating on a new bill with O'Malley's
staff and is hopeful it will be signed into law this year.

The Pew report noted Kansas and Texas as states that have acted
decisively to slow the growth of their inmate populations. They are
making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and
employing sanctions other than imprisonment for offenders who commit
technical violations of parole and probation rules.

"The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two
states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders
while helping less-dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying
citizens," the report said.

While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing
prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.

"We need to be smarter," said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice
expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We're not
incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes. But we're also
probably incarcerating people who don't need to be."

According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in
36 states and the federal prison system.

The largest percentage increase - 12 percent - was in Kentucky, where
Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget
speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased
only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate
population has increased 600 percent.

The report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance
Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to
divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.

"Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers," said the
project's director, Adam Gelb.

According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was
$23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana
the least ($13,009).

It said California - which faces a $16 billion budget shortfall -
spent $8.8 billion on corrections last year, while Texas, which has
slightly more inmates, was a distant second, spending $3.3 billion.

On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general fund dollars on
corrections, the report said. Oregon had the highest spending rate, at
10.9 percent; Alabama was lowest at 2.6 percent.

Four states - Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut - spend more
on corrections than on higher education, the report said.

"These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities,"
said Sen. Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to
the report. "Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in
education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become
productive workers and taxpayers."

The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not
reflect an increase in the nation's population. Instead, it said, more
people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures,
such as "three-strikes" laws, that result in longer prison stays.

"For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling,"
the report said.

"While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for
black males in that age group the figure is one in nine."

The racial disparity for women is also stark. One in 355 white women
ages 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one in 100 black women in
that age group.

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in
state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of
nearly 230 million American adults.

The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any
other nation, far ahead of more populous China, with 1.5 million
people behind bars.

It also said the United States is the leader in inmates per capita
(750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other
former Soviet bloc nations, which round out the top 10.

The United States also is among the world leaders in capital
punishment. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in
2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.



Sun reporter Gadi Dechter contributed to this article.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.prisons29feb29,0,2057053.story