RECORD NUMBER HELD IN PRISON; STATE RISE SLOWS

WASHINGTON, March 25 (AP) - The number of people in state prisons increased
last year at the slowest rate since 1971, though the number incarcerated in
the United States remained a record high, the Justice Department reported
today.

As of June 30, 2000, the population of federal, state and local prisons or
jails was 1,931,859, a 3 percent increase over that date in 1999. The
increase was largely in federal prisons, researchers said.

The majority of people behind bars are in state prisons, and that
population grew by just 1.5 percent, the smallest rate of increase in 29
years, according to the report by the department's Bureau of Justice
Statistics.

Racial disparities in prison populations were profound: 791,600 black men
were in prison, the most ever, the report said. Nearly an eighth of black
males from age 20 to 34 were in prison on any day, it said.

The report said members of racial minorities accounted for 79 percent of
drug offenders in state prisons.

The total number of inmates in state prisons was 1,242,962. Eleven states
reported declines in prison populations from 1999 to 2000, including
California and New York, which have two of the nation's larger prison systems.

Allen J. Beck, a co-author of the report, said the prison populations fell
because crime declined.

Crime has been falling for several years, but until last year, Mr. Beck
said, that did not slow the rate of growth in prison populations because
stricter sentencing rules were keeping inmates in prison longer.

"The drop in crime is finally starting to show up in a smaller growth rate
in the number of prisoners," he said.

Advocates for prisoners said the trend was encouraging, but they contended
that far too many people were incarcerated in the United States.

"We have 25 percent of the world's prisoners, but we're only 5 percent of
the world's population," said Kara Gotsch of the American Civil Liberties
Union's National Prison Project, which favors alternatives to prison.