U.S. INMATE COUNT GROWS, BUT RATE SLOWS

WASHINGTON -- The nation's federal and state prison population grew by
nearly 60,000 in 1998, but declining crime rates helped reduce the rate of
growth to the lowest level since 1979, the Justice Department reported
yesterday.

The year-end figure included 1,178,978 state prisoners and 123,041 federal
inmates for a total of 1,302,019, the department's Bureau of Justice
Statistics said. That was up 59,866 or 4.8 percent from 1997 -- below the
average increase of 63,144 or 6.7 percent since 1990 and the lowest since
the 2.3 percent growth in 1979. Counting the 592,000 jail inmates as well,
there were more than 1.8 million men and women behind bars in the United
States, the bureau reported. That represented an incarceration rate of 672
inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, a rate higher than in any country
except Russia.

Although crime rates have been declining since 1993, it has taken time for
that to show up in prison populations. Meantime, the sharp expansion of
mandatory minimum sentences and longer sentences in general, especially for
drug crimes during the 1980s and for violent crimes in the 1990s, coupled
with less generous parole has continued to drive prison populations up
despite the drop in crime.

Tougher federal and state sentencing laws and parole rulings pushed the
U.S. incarceration rate up from one out of every 217 residents in 1990 to
one of every 149 in 1998, the bureau reported.

"There are beginning to be some signs of stability in the prison
population," said statistician Allen Beck, co-author of the bureau report.
Only 4 percent of the state inmate growth from 1990 through 1997, the
latest available data, came from new court commitments.

"That small increase from new court commitments reflects a declining number
of arrests for violent crimes, including murder, robbery, rape and
assault," Beck said.

"The increasing length of stay in prison is the biggest factor pushing
prison populations up at this point," Beck added. The growth is largest
among inmates serving three to five years behind bars, with a smaller
increase among those serving 20 years or life.

The result is that the average time served increased from 22 months in 1990
to 27 months in 1997, the report said. And, entering prisoners expected to
serve 38 months in 1990 but 43 months in 1997. Inmate release rates dropped
from 37 percent in 1990 to 31 percent in 1997.

The 1990-1997 period also saw a 39 percent increase in the number of parole
violators returned to prison, though Beck said that is beginning to level off.

The rise in returning parole violators was cited by The Sentencing Project,
a private group that advocates alternatives to prison, as evidence of an
unforeseen effect of tougher sentencing.

"Current punitive sentencing policies have resulted in overcrowded prisons
and budgets stretched to meet even the basic needs," the project said.
"Drug treatment, mental health care, education programs and vocational
training are all in short supply within prisons . . ., leaving prisoners
largely unprepared for their return to the community."

Other findings:

On Dec. 31, state prisons held 13 percent to 22 percent more inmates than
they were designed to; the federal system was 27 percent over capacity.

In 1997, the incarceration rate for black males in their 20s was 8,630 per
100,000 residents, compared with 2,703 among Hispanic males and 868 among
white males.

The number of women in state and federal prisons rose in 1998 to 84,427,
compared with 1,217,592 men. The rate of increase for women outpaced that
of men for the third straight year, but on a much smaller base population.