Reducing Prison Populations

Reasons for the Increase in the Prison Population

There was a steady increase in the incarceration rate beginning around 1972, with a steep increase beginning in the 1980s along with the advent of crack cocaine. The current incarceration rate has stopped increasing and has remained steady for the last several years. In 1970, the incarceration rate was 96 per 100,000 population; by the end of 1986, the incarceration rate had doubled, to 227 per 100,000 population; and as of 2006, the incarceration rate had reached nearly 500 per 100,000 population. The most common factor associated with the massive proliferation in the prison population is not an increase in crime but changes in sentencing policy.

During the 1980s, the “war on drugs” and the “tough-on-crime” stance in the United States led to an increase in felony convictions, as well as longer sentences for those convictions. A main reason for the increase in the prison population in general, and of incarcerated minorities specifically, is the increase in arrests and penalties for drug offenders. The number of state inmates incarcerated for drug offenses from 1980 to 1995 increased from 45,000 to nearly half a million, an escalation in the prison population of more than 1,000 percent.

Incarceration of drug offenders is the main cause for the striking increase in the U.S. prison population—the United States has the highest incarceration rate worldwide. The Baltimore Sun reported that 70 percent of Maryland inmates in 2004 had been jailed for drug offenses.

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Another factor often associated with the increase in the prison population is the increased level of surveillance of individuals on probation and parole, which leads to an increase of technical violations that in turn result in imprisonment. The more frequent use of electronic monitoring and global positioning system (GPS) technology in the tracking of offenders has greatly increased the ability to detect individuals violating some condition of their probation or parole requirements.

Often, when offenders violate the conditions of their probation or parole, they are returned to prison even without the commission of a new crime. The incorporation of mandatory sentencing, such as “three-strikes” laws, also limits the discretion of judges; forcing them to send many people to prison when utilizing community-based sanctions would be a positive option. Mandatory sentencing guidelines also often compel judges to impose lengthier sentences that may be appropriate for the circumstances. Along these same lines is the propensity of some parole boards not to grant parole for all of those who are eligible. Sometimes in response to public scrutiny and in order to show constituents that they are not soft on crime, parole boards are reluctant to parole some individuals for fear that they might commit a new crime.

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