The prison population bomb

American Demographics, Feb, 1996 by Paula Mergenhagen, Rachel Dickenson

Prisons are often referred to as "the big house," but "full house" may be a better term. In 1994, 1 million people lived m America's federal and state prisons. Another 3.7 million were on probation or parole, and half a million were confined to locally run jails. The grand total: more than 5.1 million adults were under some form of correctional supervision two years ago. That is more than the population of Wisconsin.

The number of state and federal prisoners has more than tripled since 1980, due in large part to a national wave of tough anti-drug laws. While those laws removed thousands of drug dealers from America's streets, they also created a huge and rapidly growing industry funded by American taxpayers. The private sector is heavily involved in prison management, and prison privatization is one of the country's hottest industries. Some companies manage entire prisons, while others specialize in particular operations such as health or food services. And manufacturers prosper when they provide the many additional necessary items, from uniforms and bedding to surveillance and monitoring equipment.

If current trends continue, the prison population will increase rapidly in the next decade. Even without growth, the current prison population would still be much more expensive to maintain in the future.

Offenders who are in prison for drug-related crimes are more likely to have serious health problems. The prison population is also aging These trends will increase prisons' health-care costs, but they are dwarfed by the continuing consequences of tough sentencing laws. Until drug abuse stops or drug laws change, the prison population bomb will keep ticking away.

ONE MILLION PRISONERS

The number of inmates in state and federal prisons more than tripled, from 319,600 in 1980 to 999,800 in 1994, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The population in local jails--generally those awaiting trial or those with less than a year's sentence--increased 165 percent over the same time period, from 182,300 to 483,700. Meanwhile, the U.S. population increased just 15 percent.

"Changes in sentencing provisions have drastically increased the probability that a person arrested on a drug charge is going to do time," says Charles Thomas, a criminologist and director of the Private Corrections Project at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Another factor is the trend toward "determinate sentences," where specific, rather than minimum and maximum, sentences are meted out. On average, "the actual terms of confinement have been longer under determinate sentencing than under indeterminate sentencing," Thomas says.

Most prisoners are confined to state facilities because they have broken state laws. Only about 9 percent break federal laws and go to federal institutions. Federal prisoners are almost three times more likely than state prisoners to have been convicted of drug-related offenses, according to the BJS. "To fall under federal jurisdiction, a drug offender must be involved in importation or interstate trafficking," says Allen Beck, chief of correction statistics at the BJS. One consequence is that noncitizens account for almost 1 in 5 federal prisoners, but just 1 in 25 state prisoners.

The prison boom is biggest in states that have the toughest sentences. The number of prisoners grew fastest in the South (46 percent) between 1989 and 1994, followed by the West (41 percent). The Northeast and Midwest each experienced increases of 34 percent.

The South, which has 35 percent of the nation's population, contains 44 percent of state prisoners. The West has 22 percent of the country's population and 21 percent of its prisoners. The Northeast contains 20 percent of population but just 16 percent of prisoners. The Midwest has 24 percent of population and 19 percent of prisoners. "Conservatives put imprisonment higher on their political agenda than do their more liberal counterparts," says criminologist Thomas.

California and Texas offer evidence of this fact. Together, they account for one-fourth of all state prison inmates. California alone contains 13 percent, in line with its 12 percent share of the U.S. population. But Texas's 12 percent share of prisoners far exceeds its 7 percent share of the U.S. population. Third-place New York, fourth place Florida, and fifth-place Ohio each have prisoners shares close to their shares of the U.S. population.

PRIVATELY MANAGED PRISONS

The number of prisoners is growing fast, and companies that manage prisons are growing even faster. At last count, 18 for profit companies managed 90 of the approximately 1,560 state and federal prisons in the U.S., in addition to 12 local jails and 8 facilities in other countries. Prison beds under private management have increased from 1,345 in 1985 to at least 65,000 today, says Thomas. Between 1990 and 1995, the number of beds under contract increased an average of 35 percent a year.

Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, currently managing 43 facilities, is the largest player in this industry. Many additional companies contract certain portions of a prison's operation, such as its health or food services.