PRISON POPULATION GROWTH RATE SLOWING

The number of people behind bars in state prisons fell during the second
half of 2000 in the first decrease since 1972, the Justice Department said
Sunday.

There were more prisoners in state prisons at the end of the year than at
the beginning -- 1,236,476 to 1,228,455 -- and the total number of people
in state and federal prisons was up 1.3 percent over 1999.

However, that overall rate of growth compared to the average annual growth
rate of 6 percent since 1990 and was the lowest percentage gain since 1972.
Additionally, the absolute increase of inmates -- 8,021 to state prisons
and 10,170 to federal prisons -- was the smallest since 1980.

Criminologists said the slowing growth in overall prison populations,
coupled with a decline of 6,243 in the last six months of the year in state
prisons, is significant because it may signal the end of America's prison boom.

"There are young adults who have never drawn a breath in the United States
during a period when the prison population wasn't growing," said Franklin
E. Zimring, a criminal law professor and head of a research branch at the
University of California at Berkeley.

"Until now, the full-time business of prisons has been the growth of the
prison population. Finally, this looks like real stabilization. If it
continues, it is a new era in law enforcement."

The decline comes after a few years of slowing growth at state prisons.
During the first six months of last year, the state prison population grew
by 14,264 inmates.

During all of last year, 13 states had substantial decreases in their state
and federal inmate populations, including Massachusetts (down 5.6 percent),
New Jersey (down 5.4 percent), New York (down 3.7 percent) and Texas (down
3.2 percent).

Allen J. Beck, a chief Justice Department researcher, said some of the
declines may have been caused by states changing parole rules to make
revocations less likely.

"In New Jersey and Ohio, they are less likely to revoke parole than in
prior years. New York has also become more lenient," he said.

Dan Macallair, vice president of the San Francisco-based Justice Policy
Institute, said attitudes about drug use contributed to the decline. He
said communities and judges are getting tired of repeatedly sending drug
offenders to prison and are looking for alternatives.

"Several states, especially California, are beginning to find ways to send
less people to prison and are looking at treatment as a viable option,"
said Macallair.

Other experts said the prison population should be falling as fast as the
crime rate. Violent crime in the United States fell by a record 15 percent
last year, the government has said.

"We have a prison infrastructure in place that supports itself regardless
of what drops in the crime rate we see," said Justin Hansen, a
criminologist who works for New York City. "Prisons keep lowering the bar
to fill every bed."

They study also found that both the state and federal prison systems grew
more quickly than ever between 1990 and 2000, when more than 500,000 beds
and 351 state facilities were added.

Racial disparities in prisons are also holding steady, the report showed.

About 10 percent of all black males between 25 and 29 years old were in
federal and state prisons, compared to 2.9 percent of all Hispanic males
and 1.1 percent of all white males in the same age group.