U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Characteristics of New Commitments 2000

NCJ Number
198807
Author(s)
Robert L. Fisher; William R. Chapman; Linda Davis
Date Published
2002
Length
141 pages
Annotation
This report presents data about the characteristics of offenders who entered the New York State Department of Correctional Services facilities as new court commitments during the year 2000.
Abstract
According to the report, 28,674 offenders entered New York correctional facilities during 2000. Of these offenders, 18,563 were new court commitments. The report offers descriptive data concerning these new inmates. Violent felony offenders represented 27 percent of new commitments while 44 percent were drug offenders, 17 percent were property or other offenders, 8 percent were coercive crime offenders, and 3 percent were juvenile offenders. Twelve percent of these offenders had no prior adult arrest. Ninety-three percent were men, 19 percent were white, 48 percent were Africa-American, and 31 percent were Hispanic. The average age for all new court commitments in 2000 was 31.6 years. The average minimum sentence was 44 months. In some cases, data was also presented for the years 1997 through 2001, for comparison purposes. New commitments for men fell from 17,666 in 1999 to 17,226 in the year 2000. Although new commitments among whites increased during this time, new commitments among African-Americans and Hispanics decreased from 1999. Statistics are offered in both narrative form and in tables.