NUMBER OF INMATES NATIONWIDE SETS RECORD

Crime: Justice Department cites longer sentences for the increase in prison
population. But growth rate slows across U.S., including California.

WASHINGTON--The population of the nation's prisons

increased to a record 1.3 million last year, but the rate of growth slowed
somewhat in both California and the country as a whole, echoing a steady
decline in crime rates, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

At the end of 1998, state and federal prisons nationally housed 60,000 more
inmates than a year earlier. While the increase in the number of inmates was
the greatest since 1995, the 4.8% growth rate was down from 5.0% in 1997 and
considerably lower than the decade's annual average of 6.7%.

Justice Department officials and criminal justice experts said last year's
overall growth reflects a continuing imbalance between the effects of
anti-crime initiatives and a shortage of available prison beds.

California's inmate population increased by almost 3.9% in 1998, placing it
30th among the states. Mississippi prisons had the highest growth rate in
the country, almost 17%.

While crime rates are dropping, three-strikes laws and other sentencing
reforms have made it more likely that convicted criminals will go to prison,
said Allen Beck, coauthor of the Justice Department report. And once they
are behind bars, they are likely to serve longer sentences.

"The increasing length of stay in prison is the biggest factor pushing
prison populations up at this point," Beck added.

The national average for length of time served in prison increased from 22
months in 1990 to 27 months in 1997, the most recent year for which figures
are available. In California, the average time served is 23 months.

A 40% increase in the number of offenders returned to prison for violating
parole also has contributed to growing inmate rolls, Beck said. About 47% of
prisoners are serving time for violent crimes.

And although the rate of growth in the prison population declined last year,
government officials were quick to stress that there is a steady increase in
the number of inmates.

"The [growth] rates going down are deceptive," said Christopher Mumola, an
analyst in the Bureau of Justice Statistics. "People think it must be
getting better, but in terms of prisoners going into the system, that's not
the case at all."

California's prison population grew by more than 6,000 inmates last year to
a total of about 162,000. The state's penitentiary system, the most crowded
in the country, has twice as many prisoners as it is designed to hold.

Stricter enforcement of drug laws and harsher sentences resulted in an
explosion of California's inmate population throughout the 1980s. Over the
decade, the number of California inmates increased by 263%, outpacing all
other states and more than twice the national rate. The growth rate of the
bulging penitentiary population eased some in the early 1990s, a trend that
many law enforcement officers attribute to the threat of harsher penalties.

With more prisoners spending more time behind bars, California corrections
officials said overcrowding remains a serious problem that won't end any
time soon. The state's Department of Corrections is in the midst of a
$5-billion prison building program--the nation's largest--that would
increase the number of prison beds from 113,000 to almost 177,000.
Department officials estimate that California's prison population will pass
that mark by spring 2002.

But Lance Corcoran, vice president of the California Correctional Peace
Officers Assn., which lobbies for the Department of Corrections in the state
Legislature, said California "can't build its way out of this problem."

State legislators and corrections officials need to come up with alternative
sentencing for less serious offenders, better rehabilitation centers and a
more extensive house arrest program to reduce prison overcrowding, he said.

The average criminal commits five felonies before setting foot inside a
California correctional facility, according to department statistics.

Jenni Gainsborough, spokesperson for Washington-based Sentencing Project,
which follows nationwide inmate populations, said the increase shows that
correctional facilities are "horribly strained."

"Politicians have stuck to this mantra that you've got to be tough on crime,
and until someone says, 'Wait, what is the best way to stand up for public
policy while finding alternatives?' things will continue down this path,"
she said.

The federal prison population grew about 9% last year, more than twice the
rate in state prisons. The nation's rate of prison incarceration is now at
461 inmates per 100,000 residents, up from 292 in 1990.