The nation’s probation and parole population increased by 2.1 percent last year, and the prison population was up 1.5 percent, says the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Overall, more than 7.3 million people were under correctional sueprvision, 1 in every 31 adults. The prison numbers, which total about 1.6 million, parallelled a report issued earlier this year by the Pew Center for the States. The federal prison population increased by 6,572 prisoners. States with the greatest increases were Florida, Kentucky, and Arizona. BJS said that “prison populations are increasing at the same rate as capacity.” The growth rate slowed by .2 percent
Parole population was up more than probation population, 3.2 percent compared with 1.8 percent. Adam Gelb Of the Pew Center said “this report is yet another reminder to states of the size of the prison problem. Especially in tough economic times, they have to ask whether spending nearly $50 billion a year to keep one in 100 adults behind bars is giving us our money's worth in terms of public safety.”