STATE'S PRISON POPULATION ROSE 13.4% LAST YEAR, REPORT FINDS

Increase Is The Third-Largest In The Nation; Growth Rate Not Expected To
Slow Down

The state's prison population jumped 13.4% last year, the third-largest
growth rate in the nation, according to a new U.S. Justice Department report.

The number of state inmates rose from 16,277 at the end of 1997 to 18,451
at the end of 1998, the report says. State penal facilities operated at
136% of capacity, according to the report.

And there is no relief in sight.

"We continue to grow," state Department of Corrections spokesman Bill
Clausius said. Three state prisons now under construction "are going to
help that, but they're not going to solve the problem."

The state, which had 19,398 inmates in its custody Aug. 13, is projecting
an inmate population of 21,937 by June 30, 2000, and 25,193 by June 30,
2001, Clausius said.

Faced with a space crunch, Wisconsin housed more inmates outside its
borders last year than any other state. In fact, the 3,028 Wisconsin
inmates housed in other states or in federal facilities at the end of 1998
accounted for 27.3% of all "exported" inmates nationwide, the report says.

The good news, said Allen J. Beck, a corrections statistician with the
Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and an author of the
report, is that "Wisconsin still has relatively lower incarceration rates
compared to other states."

There were 334 Wisconsin inmates sentenced to more than one year in prison
per 100,000 residents by the end of 1998, according to the report. The
national average was 423 inmates for every 100,000 residents.

The number of state inmates serving more than a year - called "sentenced
inmates" - continued to grow in Wisconsin last year, although at a slower
rate than in 1997, the report says.

There were 17,477 sentenced inmates last year, up 11.8% from 1997 and the
fifth-highest growth rate in the nation. The state's 19% increase in the
number of sentenced inmates in 1997 ranked first in the nation.

The same factors that are driving prison populations up nationally are at
work in Wisconsin, Beck said.

Across the country, for example, inmates are serving more time for their
offenses. The average time served by released inmates nationally rose from
22 months in 1990 to 27 months in 1997, the report says.

Beck also noted that more women are being sent to prison.

"Since 1990, the annual rate of growth of the female inmate populations has
averaged 8.5%, higher than the 6.6% average increase in the number of male
inmates," the report says.

In Wisconsin, 1,169 women were inmates at the end of 1998, up 18.4% from
the 1997 figure, the report says.

"Drug law violations and the prosecution of them has had a disparate impact
on women," Beck said.

Clausius said those same trends are jamming the state's prison for women.

Taycheedah Correctional Institution, which has a design capacity of 464,
had a population of 682 on Aug. 13, he said.

The state Building Commission last week approved a $6.5 million, 125-bed
maximum security addition to the facility, he said.

Nationally, violent offenders accounted for the largest growth in state
inmates between 1990 and 1997, the report says.

During the seven-year period, the number of violent offenders grew 203,900,
while the number of drug offenders grew 77,700. Violent offenders accounted
for about half of the total increase in sentenced inmate populations from
1990 to 1997, the report says.