The increase was well below the record 47,000 increase in prisoners during the first 6 months of 1989. The growth rate from June 1990 to June 1991 was 6.5 percent, the lowest annual percentage increase since 1984. During the reporting period, prisoners in the western states increased by over 5 percent, while those in the northeast, south, and midwest increased by 4.2 percent, 3.5 percent, and 3.5 percent, respectively. While 8 States had prisoner growth of at least 10 percent, 5 States recorded lower prison populations than the previous year. There were 33 sentenced female offenders per 100,000 females in the population and 588 sentenced male prisoners for every 100,000 males; women prisoners accounted for 5.7 percent of all inmates nationwide. 3 tables