U.S. PRISON AND JAIL POPULATION INCREASES IN 2002

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. prison and jail population increased
to 2,033,331 people at the end of last year, holding one out of every
143 residents, according to a Justice Department report released on
Sunday.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported a 3.7 percent increase last
year. The 2.6 percent rise in the prison population alone represented
the largest jump in three years, equal to 700 inmates added every week
during the year.

Federal and state prisons generally hold people who have been
convicted of felony crimes while local jails generally hold people
awaiting trial or serving sentences for lesser misdemeanor offenses.

The Justice Policy Institute, which promotes alternatives to prison,
said the nation's use of incarceration is rising again at a time when
states can least afford it because of budget shortfalls.

"The prison population and budget figures -- taken together -- should
be setting off alarm bells in state capitols," Jason Ziedenberg, the
institute's director of policy and research, said.

"As legislators are struggling to fund education, health care and
stave off spending cuts, many are continuing to choose to pay for an
expensive justice system that damages communities and does not produce
safe, healthy neighborhoods," he said in a statement on the
government's latest prisoner survey.

The report found that black males from 20 to 39 years old accounted
for about a third of all sentenced prison inmates under state or
federal jurisdiction at the end of December.

It said more than 10 percent of the country's black male population
between the ages of 25 to 29 were in prison, compared to 2.4 percent
of Hispanic males and 1.2 percent of white males in the same age group.

Among the report's other findings:

- -- There were 97,491 women in federal or state prison at the end of
last year, accounting for nearly 7 percent of all prison inmates.
Since 1995, the number of female prisoners has grown 42 percent while
the number of male prisoners has increased 27 percent.

- -- Seventeen states reported increases of at least 5 percent in their
prison populations during 2002 while nine states had decreases.

- -- About half of all state prisoners were serving time for violent
crimes.

- -- Growth in the federal prison system since 1995 mainly reflected
more incarcerated drug offenders, accounting for nearly half of the
total increase, and immigration offenders, accounting for more than 20
percent of the rise.