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DOJ Report: Inmate Population Reaches 2.3 Million

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 11:35:00 AM EST
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The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released its latest report on the inmate population in America's jails and prisons. The headline spins "Slower Growth..." The reality: Our prison population increased once again, and we now have 2.3 million in our nation's prisons and jails.

The report is available here. Chief findings, according to the DOJ press release:

  • Between January and June 2007, the prison population increased by 1.6% (or 24,919 prisoners), compared to a 2% increase during the first six months of 2006.
  • The number of prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year increased 1.7% between December 31, 2006 and June 30, 2007, or at about the same rate as the total number of prisoners under jurisdiction.
  • Between 2000 and 2007, the number of inmates in custody in prisons or jails increased by 367,200. Male inmates (315,100) accounted for 86% of the increase to the custody population. Female inmates (52,100) made up the remaining 14%.

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    DOJ Report: Inmate Population Reaches 2.3 Million | 6 comments (6 topical)

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    truly embarrassing (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by DandyTIger on Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 12:36:57 PM EST
    is what I call this. No amount of spin will help. I just don't understand why more people aren't appalled by this. Even if you just consider the economics of it. I remain stunned and confused on this one.

    Private prisons are very profitable. (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by Left of center on Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 02:00:20 PM EST
    It's very sad that judges have incentive to give harsher sentences so corporate owned prisons can make a killing on the tax payers dime.

    This is an ignored problem (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by BarnBabe on Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 02:06:58 PM EST
    There are bad people and very bad people and not so bad people who are all serving time. A true story in my family I am embarassed to say but a Aunt and my cousin were at a family party. Both were drinking beer. He was drinking a lot more beer. They were at a counter and she bent down to pick something off the floor and he spilled over a beer and it poured on her head. She thought he did it on purpose, got annoyed and called 911. I should say that they lived in a small town and as my Uncle use to get rowdy sometimes as an alcholic, she would sometimes just call the sheriff and they knew him and would stop by. Not physical abuse mind you, but stupid stuff. He died at 60. Anyway, to get back to my Aunt calling 911. The sheriff arrived and she told them it was ok and she should not have called 911. It was a misunderstanding. So they gave her a choice, either she press charges or they were going to take her in for calling 911. She was over 67 and a Senior. So she has to sign the slip and they take him in. The PD tells my cousin not to plea as he will be found not guilty. My Aunt testifies of the mistake. The judge gives my cousin 3 years in Fla State Prison. They did an appeal. The same judge turned it down. 15 months later, $5,000, and the judge retired, they get back to court again. The new judge overturned the excessive sentence and he was free.  

    My point to this long story is that there are probably many many long stories of similar incidents. Why does a pretty clean cut kid gets a 3 years in jail sentence because he was probably drunk and spilled a beer on the counter which dribbled on another person's head? He was not driving. He was in his own home. He is a good person.

    There are probably a lot of people who are just wrongly incarcerated. My X-NY cop friend said it was so bad under Rudy. They had to make so many arrests so he could claim a clean city but many of the arrests were just minor infractions and stupid. They said the paper work alone kept them from doing their job of enforcing the law for major offenses.  

    between this and the death penalty posts (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Capt Howdy on Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 04:11:13 PM EST
    you are making me consider becoming a canadian again.

    This won't be an election year issue (none / 0) (#2)
    by Coral on Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 12:47:56 PM EST
    But I hope our Democratic nominee addresses this problem as president.

    I simply refuse to believe.... (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Wed Jun 11, 2008 at 08:19:26 AM EST
    there are 2.3 million of us so dangerous that we have no choice but to cage them.  500k, maybe.  2.3 million?  No f*ckin' way.

    The criminal justice system is a lemon.

    DOJ Report: Inmate Population Reaches 2.3 Million | 6 comments (6 topical)

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