WOMEN'S SHARE OF PRISON ROLLS GROWS

4% Rise Doubles That Of Men; Drug Crimes Most Reported Offense

WASHINGTON - Women made up 7 percent of all inmates in state and
federal prisons last year and accounted for nearly one in four
arrests, the government reported Sunday.

A co-author of a Bureau of Justice Statistics report, Paige Harrison,
linked an upswing in the rate of arrest for women to their increased
participation in drug crimes, violent crimes and fraud.

The number of women in state and federal prisons in 2004 was up 4
percent from 2003, more than double the 1.8 percent increase among
men, the study said. In 1995, women made up 6.1 percent of all
inmates in those facilities.

FBI figures show law officers in 2004 made more arrests in connection
with drug violations than for any other offense - about 1.7 million
arrests, or 12.5 percent of all arrests.

Those sentenced for drug offenses made up 55 percent of federal
inmates in 2003, the report said.

The total number of people incarcerated grew 1.9 percent in 2004, to
2,267,787 people. That figure includes federal and state prisoners,
as well as 713,990 inmates in local jails, 15,757 prisoners in U.S.
territorial prisons, 9,788 in immigration and customs facilities,
2,177 in military facilities, 1,826 in Indian Country jails and
102,338 in juvenile facilities.

The country's state and federal prison population - 1,421,911 - grew
2.6 percent in 2004, compared with an average growth of 3.4 percent a
year since 1995.

The growth last year in federal prison populations was 5.5 percent,
outpacing overall prisoner growth but slipping from the 7.4 average
annual growth in federal prison populations since 1995. The number of
inmates in state prisons rose 1.8 percent, with about half that
growth in Georgia, Florida and California.
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Behind Bars

The regional and state numbers of sentenced prisoners under the
jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities in 2003 and
2004, and the percent change between the years.

2003 2004 % Change

SOUTH 565,380 576,292 1.9

Alabama 27,272 25,257 -7.4

Maryland 23,230 22,696 -2.3

South Carolina 22,942 22,730 -0.9

Delaware 4,122 4,087 -0.8

Mississippi 19,569 19,469 -0.5

Texas 156,534 157,617 0.7

Virginia 35,067 35,564 1.4

Tennessee 25,403 25,884 1.9

Oklahoma 22,448 22,913 2.1

Louisiana 36,047 36,939 2.5

Arkansas 13,244 13,668 3.2

SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics