Nation’s Inmate Population Increased 6 Percent In 1997

The nation’s prison and jail population increased nearly 6 percent last year, from an estimated 1.6 million to more than 1.7 million by June 30, the Justice Department said Sunday.

That puts one in every 155 U.S. residents in jail as of midyear 1997, according to a new report by the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

However, the jump was slightly smaller than those recorded in earlier years. From 1990 to 1997, the number increased an average of 6.5 percent annually. The number of prisoners behind bars in state and federal institutions grew in 1997 by 55,198, or 4.7 percent. That was also less than the annual average increase, which has stood 7.7 percent since 1990.

Despite smaller than usual increases at the state and federal level, the figures for prisoners in local jails rose by more than the average.

From July 1 to June 30, inmates in local jails grew by 48,587, or 9.4 percent, “considerably more than the 4.9 percent average annual growth since 1990,” the bureau said.

The Sentencing Project, a private group that advocates less imprisonment and more use of creative alternatives, noted that the total U.S. prison population is still on the rise even though crime rates have been sliding steadily since 1992.