MORE THAN 3.9 MILLION AMERICANS ON PROBATION OR PAROLE

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans on criminal probation or parole hit
a record 3.9 million at the end of 1997 as the growth rate in that group
remained about average, the Justice Department reports.

About 110,000 people were added to the total last year, a 2.9 percent
increase compared with an average annual increase of 3 percent since
1990, the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said yesterday.

By the end of 1997, nearly one out of every 35 adults in the United
States was in prison, in jail or on probation or parole - a total of 5.7
million adults, or nearly 2.9 percent of the population.

Felony convictions accounted for 54 percent of the 3,261,888 adults on
probation at year-end. Twenty-eight percent had been convicted of
misdemeanors, 14 percent for driving while intoxicated and 4 percent for
other offenses.

There were 685,033 adults on parole, a conditional, supervised release
after a prison term. The vast majority, 96 percent, had been imprisoned
on felony convictions.

More than 1.6 million probationers and 400,000 parolees were released
from supervision in 1997. That year, 18 percent of the probationers and
41 percent of the parolees who were released from supervision were
incarcerated again.

Checked-by: willtoo