Federal & State Prisons

At yearend 2006:

• 27% of Federal inmates are non-US citizens.
  
• The average age of a Federal inmate in Bureau custody is 38.
  
• 19% of inmates are housed in Minimum Security Federal Institutions, compared to 39% in Low Security, 27 in Medium Security, and 11% in High Security.
  
• Females account for 7% of the Federal inmate population.
  
• 54% of inmates in Bureau custody are drug offenders. 
  
• The most common length for a Federal inmate's sentence is 5 - 10 years. 
  
• There are more Federal inmates (3.1%) sentenced to Life than sentenced to less that a year (1.6%)
  
• 56% of Federal inmates are white. 
  
• By inmate population, the largest BOP Facility is Brooklyn MDC in New York with 2,397 inmates, and the largest Privately Managed Facility is Big Sandy CI in Texas with 2,826 inmates.

At yearend 2005:

• Over 7 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole.  That’s 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents, or 1 in every 32 adults.
  
• There were an estimated 491 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents.  This number is up from 411 at yearend 1995.
  
• The number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased 2.6% from 2004, reaching 107,518.  The number of men rose 1.9%, totaling 1,418,406.
  
• There were 3,145 black male sentenced prison inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,244 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 471 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.
  
• 60 inmates were executed in 16 states, 1 more than in 2004.  Of those, 59 were males, 1 female; 41 were white and 19 were black.  Texas performed 19 executions; 5 each in Indiana , Missouri , and North Carolina ; 4 each in Ohio , Alabama , and Oklahoma ; 3 each in Georgiaand South Carolina ; 2 in California ; and 1 each in Connecticut , Arkansas , Delaware , Florida , Maryland , and Mississippi .
  
• The Federal prison system held 3,254 prisoners in 36 States under a death sentence
  
• Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.

On June 30, 2003,

• 2,078,570 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails.
   
• The total increased 2.9% from midyear 2002, less than the average annual growth of 3.7% since yearend 1995.
   
• There were an estimated 480 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents - up from 411 at yearend 1995.
   
• The number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased 5.0% from June 30, 2002 to June 30, 2003, reaching 100,102.
   
• The number of men rose 2.7%, totaling 1,360,818 at midyear 2003.
   
• At midyear 2003 there were 4,834 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the United States in prison or jail, compared to 1,778 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 681 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.
   
• Between 1995 and 2001, the increasing number of violent offenders accounted for 63% of the total growth of the State prison population; 15% of the total growth was attributable to the increasing number of drug offenders.
   
• There are 98 Federal Prisons in the U.S.
   
• There are approximately 150,000 prisoners incarcerated in federal prisons.
   
• Approximately 92% are male; approximately 8% are female.
   
• Average inmate age is 37.
   
• Approximately 70% of the federal prison population are citizens of the U.S.
   
• Drug offenses (58%) constitute the majority of offenses for which prisoners were convicted.
   
• Approximately 58% of the inmates are white.

Time Served:
(Source: Federal Bureau of Prisons)
 

Statistics By State

California Statistics:

• Inmate Pop. 95,000 to 100,000
   
• 41,000 read at HS level.
   
• 1990 1,463 earned GED.
   
• 14,000 in prison educational track.
   
• 3,254 college courses are completed each year.
   
• 10,400 offenders return to state prison each year.
   
• 62% are paid (.25-$4 hr) 10-13,000 waiting for paid positions.
   
• No waiting on academic classes.
   
• Each of state's 20 prisons have GED and ESL programs.

Georgia Justice

• Percentage of Georgia's population that is African American: 27
   
• Percentage of Georgia's prison population that is African American: 68
   
• Percentage of district attorneys in Georgia's 46 judicial circuits who are African-American: 2
   
• Percentage of judges in Georgia's Superior Courts who are African-American: 10
   
• Percentage of homicides in Georgia in which the victim is African American: 65
   
• Percentage of cases in which executions have been carried out in which the victim was white: 90

Florida Justice - Year 2000

• 123,093 men and 13,290 women between the ages of 18 and 65 were in jail or prison.
   
• 70,734 people were in state prisons.
   
• 48,469 were in local jails.
   
• 12,380 were incarcerated in federal prisons.
   
• 4,076 were in military lockups.
   
• 1,102 people were in halfway houses.
   
• 5,017 teenage boys and 1,303 girls were housed in juvenile facilities.
   
• 1,368 juvenile boys and 87 girls under 18 were incarcerated in adult lockups.
   
• 2,387 were behind bars in other types of correctional facilities

Florida - Juvenile and Adult Recidivism

The following is the recidivism rates by age for inmates two years after their release from prison:

• Under 18:     51.3%
• 18-24:     40%
• 25-34:     36%
• 35-49:     30%
• 50-59:     15%
• Over 60:     8.7%
• Total:     33.8%

Prison Facts
(From a New York Times article by Anthony Lewis, 12/21/99):

• One-fourth of the world's 8 million prisoners are incarcerated in U.S. prisons. That's 2 million prisoners in the United States!
   
• Two-thirds of the prisoners are there for non-violent offenses.   ("Chances are good that by the time they are released after sentences that  are among the longest anywhere they will be thoroughly brutalized," wrote Lewis.)
   
• Operating costs for U.S. prisons in the year 2000 - approximately $40 billion!
   
• One-fourth of U.S. prisoners are drug violators with non-violent crimes who will NOT receive effective treatment in our prisons.
   

Prison Literacy

Linacre J .M .(1996) The Prison Literacy Problem. Rasch Measurement Transactions 10:1 p. 473-4.

"The U.S. prison population has tripled since 1980 to a record 1.5 million.  Another 3.5 million are on probation or parole.  If this trend continues, the number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system, including those in prison and on parole, will approach the number of full-time students enrolled in four-year colleges and universities.  It is alarming that two-thirds don't have the literacy skills needed to function in society.  An increasing number of states are reducing their support for education programs for prisoners.  `With so many of our young adults incarcerated, are we comfortable with their overall low levels of literacy?  Most all will be released back into society.  Should we let them remain so unprepared for employment and social responsibility?' stated Richard Coley."
(From ETS Developments 41:2, 1995-96, p.8).
 

One third of the prisoners read at less than a 9th grade level.  This places prisoners at a disadvantage additional to their criminal history.  They cannot compete in the work-place.   If prison is to be a place of correction and rehabilitation, then prisoners must acquire the skills needed to give them, on release, a reasonable chance to become productive members of society.  Vigorous prison literacy programs are essential.
 

U.S. Prison Economics
(From Going Up The River: Travels in a Prison Nation; Joseph T. Hallinan; Random House, 2001):

• No nation in the world incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than the U.S.
   
• In the last 20 years, our prison population has more than quadrupled.
   
• The U.S. government predicts one in every eleven men will be imprisoned during his lifetime - one in every four for black men.
   
• The prison industry generates more than $30 billion a year.
   
• In 1997, on phone call profits alone, the state of New York earned $21.2 million, California made $17.6 million, and Florida made $13.8 million.  (Prisoners must call their families collect.  The rates are the highest in the nation, passed on to the poor families who are unlikely to refuse a collect call from an incarcerated family member.  These legal kickbacks from AT&T, MCI Worldcom, etc. to the prisons are just one small sampling of the big profits being made off of U.S. prisoners.  Prisons are big business in this country.)