{"id":12684,"date":"2011-01-14T23:14:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T04:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=12684"},"modified":"2011-01-21T16:07:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T21:07:28","slug":"a-statistical-milestone-u-s-correctional-population-declines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/01\/a-statistical-milestone-u-s-correctional-population-declines\/","title":{"rendered":"A Statistical Milestone: U.S. Correctional Population Declines"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics\u00a0released the latest data on the nation\u2019s correctional population<\/a> right before Christmas,\u00a0and there was some big news: the correctional population declined in 2009 for the first time since BJS began tracking its size in 1980.\u00a0 Given steadily decreasing rates of growth, I suppose a year of negative growth was inevitable.\u00a0 Still, the 2009 data strike me as a notable milestone.<\/p>\n

The correctional population is comprised of four groups: prison inmates (1.5 million), jail inmates (0.8 million), parolees (0.8 million), and\u00a0probationers (4.2 million).\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Of the four categories, all but the number of prison inmates declined from 2008 to 2009.\u00a0 Leading the way in percentage decline was the jail population, which was down 2.2 percent.<\/p>\n

The BJS report does not attempt to suggest reasons for the decline, but the jail\u00a0data are consistent with what I would expect to see during a time of extraordinary budgetary pressures on state and local government.\u00a0 Jails and prisons are very expensive to run, so there are powerful fiscal\u00a0incentives to reduce the populations.\u00a0 However, jail populations are much easier to reduce in the short term\u00a0than prison populations, for reasons\u00a0both administrative (prison sentences are much longer than jail sentences, so changes in front-end policies and practices take much longer to manifest themselves in a significant way\u00a0in prison numbers)\u00a0and political (prison inmates tend to have more serious criminal records than jail inmates, and no one wants another Willie Horton).\u00a0 I am familiar with efforts here in Milwaukee to reduce the size of our\u00a0jail population, which is a significant drain on local government funds, and I imagine similar initiatives have been undertaken across the country since the recession began, which may be reflected in the 2009 BJS data.<\/p>\n

Although the prison population did not decline in 2009, it did register its smallest annual increase since 2000.\u00a0 Interestingly, the state prison population did decline slightly (0.4 percent), but that decrease was more than offset by a rather startling increase in the size of the federal prison population (up 3.4 percent).\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what explains that increase.\u00a0 Is\u00a0it another indication of the federal obliviousness to the sorts of fiscal pressures that state and local governments must deal with?<\/p>\n

In any event, the overall 2009 data are in line with long-term trends in the correctional population.\u00a0 The number of Americans under criminal justice supervision skyrocketed in the 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 (This increase closely corresponds with a contemporaneous decrease in the number of Americans held in mental health institutions \u2014 what a fascinating story lies in that shift!)\u00a0 Annual increases in the size of the correctional population often approached or exceeded ten percent.\u00a0 In the 1990\u2019s, however, annual increases were almost always below five percent.\u00a0 Since 2000, the annual increases have\u00a0typically been\u00a0below two percent.\u00a0 Perhaps the 2009 data give us a preview of what the new decade of the 2010\u2019s will hold in store.<\/p>\n

But here is a sobering fact: even following the 2009 decline, one out of every thirty-two adults in this country is under criminal justice supervision.<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Life Sentences Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics\u00a0released the latest data on the nation\u2019s correctional population right before Christmas,\u00a0and there was some big news: the correctional population declined in 2009 for the first time since BJS began tracking its size in 1980.\u00a0 Given steadily decreasing rates of growth, I suppose a year of negative growth was inevitable.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}