PROBATION,PAROLE POPULATION A RECORD

Social Issues:The number in the U.S. tops 4 million,but some states show a
decrease.

Washington-The number of Americans on probation or parole has topped 4
million for the first time, the Bureau of Justice Statistics said Sunday.

But the overall increase masked some sharp changes among the states.

There were large declines in the number of adults on parole in several
states, including Virginia, down 37 percent, and North Carolina, which
registered a 30 percent drop. Parole is a period of supervision after
release from prison.

At the same time, the number of parolees in Ohio increased 66 percent, and
in Idaho the figure jumped 55 percent, according to the bureau's report.

A change in Ohio law contributed to its increase, said Thomas P. Bonczar, a
bureau statistician. "A lot of states are passing mandatory parole," he
explained.

But at the same time, the increase in the number of parolees was balanced
by states that have toughened their laws to keep offenders in prison longer.

The national prison-release rate declined from 37 per 100 prisoners in 1990
to 31 in 1997, while average time served increased from 22 months in 1990
to 27 months in 1997, Bonczar said.

Overall, 704,964 people were on parole at the end of 1998, up from 694,787
in 1997.

California had 110,617 people on parole, up 5.9 percent.

Turning to probation, more than 3.4 million adults were serving a period of
correctional supervision in their communities at the end of 1998, up from
nearly 3.3 million people in 1997. California's 324,427 probationers
represented a 6.5 percent increase.

Idaho and Vermont each reported a 21 percent increase in their probation
populations, the largest among the states, while 11 states reported declines.

"We have less information on what's happening with probation," Bonczar said.

But he noted that while violent crime has declined in recent years, there
have been increases in drug-abuse violations and convictions for fraud and
forgery, which tend to be the types of crimes for which people are
sentenced to probation.

Some 96 percent of parolees had been convicted of a felony. More than half
(57 percent) of those on probation had committed a felony, 40 percent were
convicted of misdemeanors and the rest found guilty of other infractions.