Overcrowding

Population Growth and its Causes

By the end of 2002, more than 1.4 million inmates were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, compared to 1.0 million in 1995. After dramatic increases in the 1980s and 1990s, the incarceration rate has leveled off in recent years, though it is still growing. From 2001 to 2002, the prison population grew 2.6%, which was less than the average annual increase of 3.6% since 1995. More than half of the increase in the prison population since 1995 has been due to increased convictions for violent offenses.

One reason for the increase in inmate population is that the response to certain types of offenses and certain types of offenders (e.g., repeat offenders, drug offenders, violent offenders, immigration violators, and those convicted of drunk driving or weapons offenses) has become harsher. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration ushered in a “Get tough on crime” era that still influences sentencing practices today. In 1986, Congress enacted mandatory sentencing laws, which required judges to impose fixed sentences to those convicted of certain crimes in an effort to deter and incapacitate offenders. Currently, all 50 states have adopted one or more types of mandatory sentences. Then, in 1994, Congress passed stricter penalties for repeat offenders under the Violent Crime and Control Law Enforcement Act. The act mandated life imprisonment for individuals convicted of two or more felonies, serious violent felonies, and serious drug crimes. Many states responded by passing similar legislation. In March 1994, for example, Governor Pete Wilson of California signed the nation's first “three-strikes” law. Bill 971 ordered judges to impose a sentence of at least 25 years to life, or three times the normal sentence attached to the crime—whichever entailed the longer sentence—on offenders who were convicted of selected serious felonies or who had previously been convicted of any two felonies. In 2003, 26 states and the federal government had laws similar to California's, typically allowing a prison term or something close to it for someone convicted of a third felony.

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