NCJ Number
41970
Date Published
1976
Length
3 pages
Annotation
BETWEEN JANUARY 1974 AND JANUARY 1976, NEARLY 50,000 PEOPLE WERE ADDED TO THE FEDERAL AND STATE PRISON POPULATION, PUSHING THE TOTAL TO OVER 250,000 AND REPRESENTING A 25 PERCENT GROWTH IN TWO YEARS.
Abstract
FOR SOME REASON, PERSONS WHO ARE NOT WHITE ARE PRESENT IN INSTITUTIONS MUCH MORE FREQUENTLY THAN A RANDOM DISTRIBUTION WOULD SUGGEST. IN FACT, NON-WHITES ARE FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY THAN WHITES (553 PER 100,000 POPULATION AS OPPOSED TO 105 PER 100,000 POPULATION) TO BE CONFINED. IN 1970, BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 24, A FULL 3.3 PER CENT OF THE NON-WHITE POPULATION WAS IN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS. A STRAIGHT LINE STATISTICAL PR0JECTION WOULD INDICATE A 1985 CORRECTIONAL POPULATION OF 455,000 INMATES, 46 PER CENT OF WHOM WILL BE NON-WHITE. UNFORTUNATELY, 1976 BEGAN WITH 250,000 INMATES IN FEDERAL AND STATE INSTITUTIONS AND THE PRISON POPULATION WAS ALREADY 47 PER CENT BLACK IN 1974. IN ADDITION, THERE ARE SEVERAL DISTURBING FACTORS WHICH INDICATE THAT THE 1985 PROJECTIONS ARE LOW - THE APPARENT RENEWED SPURT IN OFFENSES KNOWN TO POLICE; RHETORIC ABOUT MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES; DEVELOPING POLITICAL CONSERVATISM OF THE POPULATION AT LARGE; AND THE INCREASE IN THE PROPORTION OF CHILDREN IN POVERTY. ...ELW