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More Americans end up in prison
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/07/29 11:27  Shanghai Daily

  America's prison population grew again in 2002 despite a declining crime rate, costing the federal government and states an estimated US billion a year at a time of rampant budget shortfalls.

  The inmate population in 2002 of more than 2.1 million represented a 2.6 percent increase over 2001, according to a report released on Sunday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Preliminary FBI statistics showed a 0.2 percent drop in overall crime during the same period.

  Experts say mandatory sentences, especially for non-violent drug offenders, are a major reason inmate populations have risen for 30 years. About one of every 143 US residents was in the federal, state or local custody at year's end.

  "The nation needs to break the chains of our addiction to prison, and find less costly and more effective policies like treatment," said Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas American Civil Liberties Union. "We need to break the cycle."

  Others say tough sentencing laws, such as the "three strikes" laws that can put repeat offenders behind bars for life, are a chief reason for the drop in crime. The Justice Department, this year ordered Bureau of Prisons officials to stop sending so many white-collar and non-violent criminals to halfway houses.

  "The prospect of prison, more than any other sanction, is feared by white-collar criminals and has a powerful deterrent effect," Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said in a memo announcing the change.

  Yet the cost of housing, feeding and caring for a prison inmate is roughly US,000 per year, or about US billion nationwide using 2002 figures, according to The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to prison. Construction costs are about US,000 per cell.

  Even as these costs keeping climbing, the US federal government is tackling a giant budget deficit and 31 states this year are cutting spending - most often across all programs - to deal with shortfalls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

  "The prison population and budget figures, taken together, should be setting off alarm bells in state capitols," said Jason Zeidenberg, director of policy and research for the Justice Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on ending reliance on incarceration.

  Drug offenders now make up more than half of all federal prisoners.

  Over the same period, state prison and jail populations grew just 2.4 percent. Prison alternative advocates credit moves in some states to divert drug offenders to treatment programs and other innovations for that lower growth rate.




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