Nation Briefing

INCREASE IN U.S. PRISON POPULATION SLOWED IN 2001

WASHINGTON - The number of people in prison grew last year at the slowest
rate in three decades, the Justice Department reported Wednesday.

The total population in all prisons and jails rose a bit more than 1
percent, nearing 2 million, according to the annual report. As of June 30,
2001, one of every 145 U.S. residents was behind bars.

Tougher anti-crime policies, more facilities and longer sentences have
caused the decades-long increase in the prison population. Most of the
growth between 2000 and 2001 came in federal facilities.

"It appears the state prison population has reached some stability," said
Allen Beck, a statistician with the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Crime
rates are down and parole violations have stabilized, while state
legislatures in recent years have not enacted the kind of sweeping
sentencing reforms that passed in the early 1990s.

Overall, there were 1,965,495 people in custody in federal and state
prisons and local jails in June 2001, up 1.6 percent from the previous year.

The population in U.S. and state prisons combined rose 1.1 percent, the
slowest annual growth since 1972.