
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 28, 1995                   TAG: 9508280166
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. HAS 5.1 MILLION CONVICTS

Reflecting a 15-year trend, the number of Americans behind bars or on probation or parole climbed to a record 5.1 million last year, amid both overcrowded jails and prisons and increased community supervision of criminals, a Justice Department study reported Sunday.

A total of 2.7 percent of the nation's population was either locked up or under legal supervision at the end of 1994, the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics found. Nearly three-quarters of those in the criminal justice system were on probation or parole in the community rather than serving time in prison or jail cells.

Since 1980, state and federal prison populations have skyrocketed by 213 percent and probation rolls have jumped by 165 percent. The average annual rate of growth has been 7.6 percent; the figure for 1994 was 3.9 percent.

Criminal justice experts said that the sharp increases reflect tougher sentencing on a range of crimes as well as a greater proportion of drug arrests involving longer prison terms. At the same time, they said the consequent pressure to ease congestion in packed prisons and jails has led to expanded use of alternatives to incarceration or early release.

Alfred A. Blumstein, a criminologist at the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said he believes the criminal justice system ``may be overextending itself'' and that increased emphasis on such programs as drug treatment and prevention may be more effective in the long run than meting out harsher sentences.

``Just by locking away more people, we do avert crimes, but at a cost,'' Blumstein said. ``We have no good estimates of how much benefit we get for ... the cost of $25,000 per person per year in prison or jail.''

Nearly 3 million individuals were on probation as of Dec. 31, the study found.

Texas had the most individuals on probation and parole with 503,000 - more than 3.8 percent of all the state's adults. California followed with 370,000.

The figures show that a higher percentage of males and whites are on probation than are in the prison system. Women make up 21 percent of all probationers and only 6 percent of all prisoners. Blacks make up 32 percent of those on probation and 50 percent of the prison population.

Half of those in prison have committed a violent crime; 80 percent have previous convictions.

Prisons are running at 20 percent over capacity and more than 4 percent of those sent to prison are backed up at local jails despite considerable prison construction, forcing the early release of some inmates, said Lawrence A. Greenfeld, a deputy director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

by CNB