FEDERAL CRIME DATA SHOW A HIGH CONVICTION RATE

WASHINGTON, May 31 -- Eighty-seven percent of defendants charged with
federal crimes were convicted in the fiscal year 1998, and 71 percent
of those who were convicted were sentenced to prison, the Justice
Department reported today.

Nearly half of the 106,139 federal arrests during the 12 months that
ended Sept. 30, 1998, involved drug or immigration violations,
according to the first comprehensive study of federal arrest data by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Drug violations accounted for 29
percent of the arrests, and immigration offenses for 20 percent.

Seventy-one percent of those convicted were sentenced to prison, up
from 60 percent of those convicted in 1990. Offenders convicted of
violent felonies were sentenced to an average of 84.2 months in prison
in 1998; felony drug offenders to 78.8 months; immigration offenders
to 26.4, months and property offenders to 25.4 months.

In 1998, the time actually served reached 87 percent of the sentence,
up from 65 percent in 1990.

The number of defendants prosecuted rose to 78,172 in 1998, up 12.7
percent from the 1997 total. Drug cases accounted for 38 percent of
the increase; immigration cases for 29 percent of it. Eighty-three
percent of federal defendants were charged with felonies.

Pretrial release declined to 43 percent of those charged in 1998 from
62 percent in 1990. Those least likely to be released were charged
with immigration offenses, violent crimes, drug or weapons violations.

Of those released while awaiting trial, 84 percent completed their
release without incident.

Appeals to federal courts of appeal remained constant at 10,000 to
11,000 a year from 1990 to 1998. Of the 10,105 appeals completed in
1998, 82 percent upheld the district court ruling, at least in part.

The federal prison population surpassed 100,000 in 1998 for the first
time, up 9,670 from 1997 to 108,925.