More Americans Going to Prison; Wonder Why?

WASHINGTON: Get-tough policies that lock up offenders for longer sentences are propelling a projected increase of nearly 200,000 in the U.S. prison population in the next five years, according to a private study released Wednesday.

The increase — projected by the Pew Charitable Trusts' study to be three times faster than the overall population growth in the United States — is expected to cost states more than $27 billion.

"As a country, we have a problem," said Susan Urahn, managing director of policy initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts, which funded the study by its Public Safety Performance Project.

The study is the first of its kind to project prison populations in every state through 2011, based on state projections, current criminal justice policies and demographic trends.

Urahn said she hoped states would use the study to prepare for the future, either by building more prisons or by adopting policies to slow the growth through alternative forms of punishment.


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The projections, she said, are not inevitable. They can be altered by state policies as well as economic and cultural changes.

"What we have seen is there are a growing number of states really focused, not on being tough on crime or soft on crime, but on being smart about crime," Urahn said. "Every state faces unique circumstances and challenges."

There are more than 1.5 million inmates in the nation's state and federal prisons, a number that is projected to grow to more than 1.7 million by the end of 2011, a 13 percent increase. The nation's population, by comparison, is projected to grow by 4.5 percent in that time.

States are projected to spend up to $27.5 billion on the new inmates, including $12.5 billion in construction costs, according to the study.

Men far outnumber women in prison — nearly 14 to 1. But in the next five years, the number of women inmates is projected to increase by 16 percent compared with a 12 percent increase for men.

Florida is projected to add the most prisoners, about 16,000.


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