STATE'S INMATE COUNT UP 3.3%

Growth Outpaces National Rate

Sunday, August 12, 2001 - Colorado's prison population grew by nearly three
times the national rate in 2000, while the number of inmates in the
nation's jails and prisons increased by the smallest margin in nearly three
decades.

Nationwide, the prison population added more than 350 inmates a week last
year, growing to 2.07 million, an increase of 1.3 percent. That was the
lowest growth rate in 29 years.

Colorado's incarcerated population, including people in local jails,
juvenile facilities and prisons, grew by 3.3 percent. Including the federal
facilities within the state, the prison population grew by 7.4 percent.

The figures were released today in the Bureau of Justice Statistics annual
report.

While significantly higher than the national average, the growth rate for
Colorado Department of Corrections prisons is the slowest it has been in
the past 10 years, according to DOC figures released last month.

"Overall, the prison population is slowing down simply because we've seen a
drop in crime and a consequent drop in arrests," said Allen Beck, chief of
corrections statistics for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and an author of
the report.

The greatest rate of growth occured in the federal system, which is
bursting at the seams. The federal system accounted for more than half of
the national increase, adding 200 inmates a week for an increase of 7
percent last year. The federal system, which has 84 facilities, operates at
31 percent over capacity.

Federal courts busier

Although arrest rates may be dropping among state and local law enforcement
agencies, Beck said, federal courts have seen an increase in cases,
particularly immigration and weapons cases.

"What we're seeing is an increasing number of cases in U.S. District Court,
an increasing number of convictions and a greater use of incarceration as a
punishment," Beck said in explaining the growth of the federal prison
population.

In Colorado, the Bureau of Prisons operates the Federal Corrections
Institution in Englewood, another FCI in Florence, the maximum- security
U.S. Pentitentiary-Florence, and the most secure prison in the world -
Administrative Maximum, or SuperMax, in Florence.

Beck said the large increase in inmates in Colorado's federal prisons has
no reflection on the state.

"Inmates that might be housed in a particular facility come from far and
wide," he said.

According to the report, one in every 109 American males served time in
prison or jail last year. Nearly 10 percent of all black men between the
ages of 25 and 29 were in prison or jail, compared with almost 3 percent of
all Hispanic men in the same age range and about 1 percent of all white men
in that range.

One in every 1,695 women were incarcerated last year.

Two states - California with 163,001 prisoners and Texas with 157,997
prisoners - along with the federal system with 145,416 prisoners, accounted
for nearly one-quarter of all people incarcerated in the country.

And 61 percent of federal prisoners were serving time for drug violations.
No breakdown by race was given.

Per capita incarceration

Louisiana had the highest rate of incarceration per capita, followed by
Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Minnesota and Maine had the lowest rate.

Also, even though Colorado increased its prison capacity significantly in
past years, it still doesn't have enough beds.

Last year, the state increased its prison capacity by 34 percent, to 11,473
beds, yet remains at 5 percent over capacity with 12,065 inmates - not
including contract facilities, halfway houses and prisoners-in-transit.

Colorado operates 24 prisons and has four more contracted out to private
companies.

The annual cost to Colorado taxpayers to house one prisoner for one year
grew to $26,689, up 1.7 percent from the previous year.

Staff writer John Ingold contributed to this report