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US state prison population dropped in 2009: report

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The number of inmates in US state prisons has dropped for the first time in 40 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Center on the States. Led by California and Michigan, the state prison population decreased by 0.4 percent during 2009. Because of a slight increase in the federal system, the total number of prisoners in US prisons increased slightly between in 2009. According to the report, the decline is due to fewer prisoners entering the prison system, while the number of people leaving state prison in 2008 was an all-time high. The report said that even before facing financial difficulties, many states had already started reducing total admissions in 2007, and others had cut back on parole revocations. Director of the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project Adam Gelb said that another important reason for the decline "is that states began to realize there are research-based ways they can cut their prison populations while continuing to protect public safety." Last year, the Pew center reported that one in 31 US adults is in prison, or on parole. The report found that men are five times as likely as women to be in prison and that black adults are four times as more likely as white adults. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 7.3 million people were under some form of correctional supervision in 2008. According to the International Center for Prison Studies, the US has the most prisoners per capita in the world.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 18, 2010 (boomark / email).