Inter Alia

Corrections Compendium, Spring 2009 by Gormsen, Lia

In 2008, 17 states enacted sentencing and corrections reforms in the areas of drug policy, parole revocation, racial justice, felony disenfranchisement, juvenile justice and higher education in prison, reported The Sentencing Project. The report. State of Sentencing 2008: Developments in Policy and Practice, notes that though states have been passing policy reforms for the past decade, the national budget crisis and increasing prison populations have made states more apt to address corrections legislation. Arizona was highlighted for establishing a probation revocation and crime reduction performance incentive system that encourages counties to reduce commitments to prison. Kentucky amended parole release policies and expanded home incarceration for people convicted of certain offenses. Mississippi also made changes to its parole release policies, in addition to expanding eligibility for compassionate release.

While the reforms are promising, the report says, they ignore some of the roots causes of the U.S.'s burgeoning incarceration level, including mandatory-minimum sentencing, truth-in-sentencing and life without parole. The report suggests that policymakers reconsider overly harsh sentencing policies; expand cost-effective alternatives to incarceration; revise parole and probation revocation procedures; and revisit parole eligibility criteria. To read the report, visit www.sentencingproject.org.

Hispanice made up 40 percent of all federal offenders in 2007 as a result of growth in illegal immigration and increased enforcement of immigration laws. reported the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. A Rising Share: Hispanics and Federal Crime notes that Hispanics, who make up 13 percent of the total U.S. adult population, were sentenced to 24 percent of federal offenses in 1991 - meaning the 2007 number is a 16 percent increase. The focus on immigration has changed the demographic make-up of federal offenders, explains the report: Among all Hispanic federal offenders, 72 percent were not U.S. citizens in 2007, up from 61 percent in 1991.

The report also analyzed federal sentences by race, finding that Hispanics convicted of any federal offense were more likely than non-Hispanics to be sentenced to prison. Hispanics, however, were more likely to receive shorter sentences than blacks and whites. Data for the report came from the U.S. Sentencing Cornrnission's Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences. The report can be found at http://pewhispanic.org.

More than 7.3 million men and women were either in prison or jail or on probation or parole at year-end 2007, reported the Bureau of Justice Statistics in a press release that pulled statistics from two of its reports: Prisoners in 2007 and Probation and Parole in the United States, 2007 - Statistical Tables. About 70 percent of the adults under correctional supervision were either on probation or parole (5.1 million), and the other 30 percent (2.3 million) were incarcerated in prison or jail. The press release noted that while the number of prisoners under state and federal authority increased 1.8 percent from year-end 2006, the rate of growth, compared to the average annual growth from 2000 to 2006, slowed by 0.2 percent. BJS also examined 2007 prison capacities, finding that federal prisons operated at 136 percent of capacity, while states ranged from 96 percent of highest capacity to 113 percent of lowest capacity.

Of those supervised in the community in 2007, more than eight in 10 were on probation and less than two in 10 were on parole (4,293,163 and 824,365, respectively). The total community population grew by 103,100 during 2007, and entries to probation supervision exceeded exits by 100,000. To read the press release and both reports, visit www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.

The number of minor children with a parent in prison increased 82 percent between 1991 and 2007, to 1.7 million, reported The Sentencing Project in Incarcerated Parents and Their Children: Trends 1991 - 2007. The report analyzes and compares data from Bureau of Justice Statistics reports during the past two decades on incarcerated parents and their minor children.

Of the 1.7 million children with a parent in prison, more than 70 percent were nonwhite. The report draws attention to the increasing incarceration rates of women; the number incarcerated women has more than doubled since 1991, from 27,500 to 65,600 in 2007. In addition, the report presents statistics on parental visitation; racial breakdowns of children with an incarcerated parent; and how the effect of parental incarceration varies based on a child's age, whether the child was living in a one- or twoparent household, and the child's surrounding support network. The report can be read at www. sentencing project.org.

- Lia Gormsen