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News (Media Awareness Project) - US: 673,000 Jailed In Clinton Term
Title:US: 673,000 Jailed In Clinton Term
Published On:2001-02-20
Source:Boston Globe (MA)
Fetched On:2008-01-26 23:30:01
673,000 JAILED IN CLINTON TERM

WASHINGTON Tough policies, more prisons, more police officers, and longer
sentences led to more Americans going to prison or jail during the Clinton
administration than during any past administration, says a new report from
a think tank.

During President Clinton's eight years in office, 673,000 people were sent
to state and federal prisons and jails, compared with 343,000 during
President Bush's single term and 448,000 in President Reagan's two terms,
says a study by the Justice Policy Institute, an arm of The Center on
Juvenile and Criminal Justice.

The center advocates more balance between incarceration and treatment for
criminals.

The incarceration rate at the end of the Clinton administration was 476 per
100,000 citizens, versus 332 per 100,000 at the end of Bush's term and 247
per 100,000 at the end of Reagan's administration, the study said.

Incarceration rates for blacks increased to 3,620 per 100,000 from around
3,000 per 100,000 people during Clinton's two terms.

Two million people are behind bars and 4.5 million are on probation and
parole, according to the study, which is based on Justice Department
figures and estimates from 1993 to 2000.

The study attributed the surge in prisoners to Clinton administration
initiatives that provided more money to states for prisons, police
officers, and crime prevention programs. The 1994 crime bill, which gave
$30 billion to states, was a major factor, said Vincent Schiraldi,
president of the Justice Policy Institute. Other factors included tougher
sentencing and the abolition of parole, he said.

Republicans are thought to have more punitive crime policies than
Democrats, but the opposite was true during the Clinton administration,
Schiraldi said.

"President Clinton stole the show from the 'tough on crime' Republicans,"
he said.

Allen Beck, chief of corrections statistics at the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, disputed the notion that Clinton administration crime
initiatives were the prime reason for the burgeoning prison population.

He said many states had already begun tough crime prevention programs
before Clinton came to office and tougher sentencing guidelines for federal
drug offenders began in the late 1980s.

Moreover, Beck said, people are staying in jail longer because parole
boards are not releasing prisoners.

"It's not that more people are going to prison, rather people in prison are
staying longer," he said.

Schiraldi urged President Bush to make good on a campaign promise to
provide $1 billion to states for local drug treatment programs.
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