Washington, D.C. -- The number of state and federal prison inmates grew by 89,707 during the 12 months ending June 30, 1995, the Department of Justice announced today. It was the largest one-year population increase the Department has recorded. At the end of June, there were 1,104,074 men and women incarcerated in the nation's prisons.
During the past 12 months the state prison population grew by 9.1 percent and the federal prison population by 6.1 percent, which is the equivalent of 1,725 new prison beds every week. On June 30, 1995, state prisons held 1,004,608 inmates and federal prisons held 99,466. State and federal prisons, which primarily house convicted felons serving sentences of a year or more, hold about two-thirds of the more than 1.5 million adults incarcerated in the United States. The other third are held in locally operated jails, which primarily house people awaiting trail or serving sentences of a year or less. On June 30, 1994, the most recent date for which jail data are available, 483,717 adults were in local jails.
The combined state and federal prison population increase of 8.8 percent during the past 12 months was slightly higher than the average annual growth (7.9 percent) recorded since 1990. During the year preceding June 30, 1995, prison populations increased by at least 10 percent in 23 states. Texas reported the largest growth (nearly 27 percent), followed by West Virginia (26 percent) and North Carolina (18 percent).
Prison populations declined in the District of Columbia (down 5.0 percent), Alaska (3.1 percent), Arkansas (1.0 percent) and South Carolina (0.8 percent). Between 1980 and 1994 the total number of people held in federal and state prisons and local jails almost tripled--increasing from 501,886 to 1,483,410. As of December 31, 1994, the total incarceration rate reached 565 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents.
The incarceration rate of state and federal prisoners sentenced to more than a year reached 403 per 100,000 U.S. residents on June 30, 1995. Texas led the nation with 659 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 state residents, followed by Louisiana (573 per 100,000), Oklahoma (536) and South Carolina (510). The states with lowest rates were North Dakota (90 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 state residents), Minnesota (103) and Maine (112).
The rate for inmates serving a sentence of more than a year was 776 males per 100,000 U.S. male residents, compared to 47 females per 100,000 female residents. Since June 30, 1994, the number of female inmates has grown by 11.4 percent, compared to an 8.7 percent increase among male inmates. As of mid-year 1995, there were 69,028 women in state and federal prisons--6.3 percent of all prisoners.
During the last decade the number of Black inmates in state, federal and local jails and prisons has grown at a faster pace than the number of White inmates. Although the number of Black and White inmates was almost equal in 1994, the incarceration rate for blacks was much higher. According to data collected annually from state, federal and local officials, the proportion of Black females in the U.S. who are incarcerated was seven times higher than for white females in 1994.
Similarly, the proportion of Black male adults incarcerated was almost eight
times higher than for White male adults. An estimated 6.8 percent of all Black male adults
were in jail or prison compared to less than 1 percent of White male adults.