The U.S. Finally Has Fewer Prisoners

by Colin Asher · 2010-06-24 12:15:00 UTC
Topics:

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has just announced that — for the first time since 1972 — the number of prisoners being held by state authorities declined last year. Surely that's good news, even if it's not unmitigated good news.

Nationwide, the number of state prison inmates decreased by 2,941 individuals, or just 0.2%. Moreover,  progress among states wasn't even. Though 24 states saw their prison populations decline, 26 experienced increases. (The largest increases in state prison populations were in Pennsylvania, Florida and Louisiana.)

More importantly still? Actually, the overall prison population didn't decrease, because the number of federal prisoners increased. And that increase was no small matter. By the end of 2009 the federal prison population rose by 6,838—or 3.4%. Which means that last year, the overall number of people held in U.S. prisons actually increased by 3,897 inmates.

It should be noted that that figure marks the smallest annual increase of the last decade, but that's hardly praiseworthy. Slowing the car as it heads toward the cliff's edge means nothing if you don't grab the wheel and turn. After all, at 1,613,656 prisoners, the U.S.'s total prison population remains the world's largest.

But there is one more bit of good news to be found in the BJS report. It turns out that, despite an increase in the overall prison population, we did see the overall number of people incarcerated decline, thanks to how the shorter-term population of local jails around the country has declined — and significantly, at that. By the end of 2009, the country's jails were holding 2.3% fewer inmates than they were at the end of 2008. That decrease in the  jail population means that, at the end of 2009, the U.S.'s total inmate population was 2,297,400 — or 0.5% lower than it was the year before.

The news that our overall jail population has fallen is hopeful. After all, fewer people in jails means fewer people waiting to face trial — and, potentially, fewer people sent to our nation's prisons.

Photo Credit: jgurbisz

Colin Asher is a former social worker and award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, among many others.
PREVIOUS STORY:
A Jim Crow Journey
NEXT STORY:
Make the Call! Stop the Torture of Special Needs Children in Massachusetts

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.