GROWTH IN CORRECTIONAL POPULATIONS

A dramatic increase in the offender population accompanied the changes in sentencing and correctional philosophy that began in the 1970s. The increase in incarceration rates was unprecedented (see Figure 3.1). From 1930 until 1975 the average incarceration rate had been relatively stable at 106 inmates for every 100,000 individuals in the population. The rate fluctuated only slightly, from a low of 93 inmates per 100,000 to a maximum rate of 137 (Blumstein & Beck, 1999; Sourcebook, 2000). That time period was the age of indeterminate sentencing and rehabilitation.

As shown in Figure 3.1, after 1975 incarceration rates grew tremendously. By 1985 the incarceration rate for state or federal prisons was 202 per 100,000 adults in the population, and this continued to climb to 411 in 1995 and 478 in 2000. Prisons are operated by state or federal agencies and hold longer term, sentenced prisoners. Jails are operated by local counties or cities and hold those who are awaiting trial or sentencing or who have been sentenced to short sentences (one or two years at most). When jail populations are added, the total incarceration rate in year 2000 was 699 individuals per 100,000 adults. More than 1.3 million prisoners were under U.S. federal or state jurisdiction by the end of 2000; more than 2 million were incarcerated either in a local jail or a state or federal prison (Sourcebook, 2000).