the crime report

The U.S. has more prisoners per capita than any other nation while the federal prison population — half of it made up of drug offenders — is swollen by growing numbers of women and foreign inmates. Courthouse News says they are stretching the seams of institutions that are nearly 40 percent over-capacity. At an appropriations hearing in Congress yesterday, Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) asked federal prison director Harley Lappin, “Where in the world are you going to put these people?” (more…)

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For the first time in 40 years, the state prison population declined, says Prison Count 2010 a new survey by the Pew Center on the States.  The population decreased in 27 states, California’s population fell the most loosing 4,257 prisoners in 2009. Five other states reduced their prison population by 1,000 inmates. In 23 states the prison population grew, and more than half the increase was in five states: Pennsylvania (2,122), Florida (1,527), Indiana (1,496), Louisiana (1,399) and Alabama (1,053).

Read the full survey here.

Use the Crime Report for more information on prisons.

State prison populations declined slightly last year after growing for nearly four decades, says a new study from the Pew Center on the States reported by the New York Times. The likely reasons for the shift are efforts to keep parolees out of prison and cutting time served by nonviolent offenders. “It’s too early to tell whether this is a tap of the brakes or a shift into reverse,” said Adam Gelb, the director of Pew’s Pubic Safety Performance Project. (more…)

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