7.2 MILLION AMERICANS CLOGGING UP CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

WASHINGTON -- The number of people under supervision in the U.S.
criminal justice system rose to 7.2 million in 2006. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than two million offenders were
behind bars in 2006, the most recent year studied in an annual survey.
Another 4.2 million were on probation, and nearly 800,000 were on
parole. The cost to taxpayers, about $45 billion, is causing states
such as California to reconsider harsh criminal penalties. To relieve
overcrowding, California is now exporting some of its 170,000 inmates
to privately run corrections facilities as far away as Tennessee. In
1980, about the time that tough sentencing laws, particularly for drug
offenses, began to be passed by federal and state legislators, 1.8
million people were in the system and $11 billion was spent on
corrections.