Correctional Facilities
o Number of adult state and federal correctional facilities in 2000: 1,668
o Percentage increase this figure represents over the number of facilities in 1995: 14%
o Number of privately operated facilities in 2000: 264
o Percentage increase of private facility inmate population from 1995-2000: 459%
Source: Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
Prison Capacity
o Total number of prison inmates in the United States in September 2003: 2,033,331
o Official capacity of the prison system: 1,817,628
o Current occupancy level of the U.S. prison system: 106.4%
Source: International Centre for Prison Studies, King's College, www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/home.html
Prisoners, Inmates, and Parolees
o Number of people on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at the end of 2001: 6.7 million
o Percentage of U.S. residents born in 2001 who will go to prison at some time: 6.6% (1 in 15)
o Racial comparison of lifetime chance of going to prison: African Americans 18.6%, Hispanics 10%, whites 3.4%
o Percentage of African American males who will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime: 32%
o Ratio in local jails of African American to Hispanic inmates: 3 to 1
o Ratio in local jails of African American to white inmates: 5 to 1
Source: Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
Women and Children in the Corrections System
o Total number of female arrests in 2001: 2,100,750
o Percent of female arrests that were female juveniles: 21.1%
o Ratio of number of children with a mother in prison in 2001 and in 1991: 2 to 1
o Percent of total inmates represented by women at the end of 2002: 6.8%
o Ratio of the likelihood of a woman born in 2001 spending time in prison to the likelihood of a woman born in 1974 doing so: 6 to 1
o Percentage of increase in delinquency cases for females under age 16 between 1988 and 1997: 89%
Source: National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org/wgcjs/facts.html
The Mentally Ill in the Corrections System
o Current number of inmates with serious mental illness: 300,000
o Current number of psychotic inmates: 70,000
o Increase in the mental health caseload in New York prisons since 1991: 73%
o Ratio of men and women with mental illness in U.S. prisons compared with those in mental health hospitals: 3 to 1
Source: Human Rights Watch, "Ill-Equipped U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness
www.hrw.org/reports/2003/usa1003
The Death Penalty
o Number of inmates on death row nationwide in 1968: 1,781
o Number of inmates on death row nationwide in June 2003: 3,517
o Racial composition of the death row population in 2003: 46% white, 42% African American, 10% Latino
o Number of juveniles currently on death row: 89
o Number of inmates executed in 2002: 71
o Money beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system that Florida spends per year on death penalty cases: $51 million
o Money beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system that California spends per year on death penalty cases: $91 million
Source: Death Penalty Information Center, www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Costs of Criminal Justice
o Amount of money that federal, state, and local governments spent on civil and criminal justice in fiscal year 1999: more than $14 billion
o Percentage increase in this amount since 1998: 8%
o Amount spent on federal, state, and local justice systems in 1999: $146,556,000,000
o Number of adult jail and prison inmates in 1999: 1,875,199. Based on this information the cost per inmate year was:
o Corrections spending alone: $26,134 per inmate
o Corrections, judicial, and legal costs: $43,297 per inmate
o Corrections, judicial, legal, and police costs: $78,154 per inmate
Sources: Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs; www.drugwarfacts.org