1 in 100 adults now in prison
2,319,258 Americans behind bars in 2008, most of any nation
NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one in every 100 adults are in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.
Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 - one in 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.
The report, released yesterday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.
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The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.
Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are pressuring many states to consider cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the past for fear of appearing soft on crime.
"We're seeing more and more states being creative because of tight budgets," she said. "They want to be tough on crime. They want to be a law-and-order state. But they also want to save money, and they want to be effective."
Some Maryland lawmakers said they hope the report will spur reforms in drug-sentencing laws.
"We've been pounding the governor and chairmen of committees with this information for almost five years," said Del. Curtis Anderson, a Baltimore Democrat who has sponsored several bills that would lower maximum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. "The fact that somebody else is saying it and it's a national report might help us wake them up to this issue."
There are 23,342 people incarcerated in Maryland, according to the Pew report. "And roughly 70 percent of them are in prison for drug or drug-related offenses," Anderson said. "And of that 70 percent, 92 percent are African-American."
Anderson said the Pew report was not surprising. "We have the highest incarceration rate of every country in the world, including backward and despotic countries like Cuba," he said. "The problem is that the folks we put in jail aren't violent offenders or dangerous to society, but mainly low-level drug users or drug dealers. The way we should be dealing with these people is to put them into treatment, which is far less expensive and much more effective."
Anderson, chairman of the city's legislative delegation, has proposed a bill this session that would reduce mandatory sentences for some drug offenses from 20 years to 10 years. The General Assembly passed a similar bill last year, but it was vetoed by Gov. Martin O'Malley. Anderson said he has been collaborating on a new bill with O'Malley's staff and is hopeful it will be signed into law this year.
The Pew report noted Kansas and Texas as states that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate populations. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than imprisonment for offenders who commit technical violations of parole and probation rules.
"The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less-dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens," the report said.
While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.
"We need to be smarter," said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We're not incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes. But we're also probably incarcerating people who don't need to be."
According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.
The largest percentage increase - 12 percent - was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate population has increased 600 percent.
The report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.
"Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers," said the project's director, Adam Gelb.
According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana the least ($13,009).
