THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 1, 1995 TAG: 9505010068
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
The number of inmates in local jails across the nation reached a record 490,442 last year, more than double the population a decade earlier, the Justice Department said Sunday.
The rising number of drug offenders was the biggest reason for the increase, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which estimated that more than 105,800 of the 1993 jail inmates were charged with or convicted of drug crimes.
Most jail inmates last year were black or Hispanic, and black people were nine times more likely than people of other races to be held in a local jail, the report said.
The study covered the 3,304 jails operated by counties or municipalities across the country.
Local jails house one-third of the almost 1.5 million people incarcerated in the United States; the rest are in state or federal prisons.
Five states held just under half of all jail inmates: California, Texas, Florida, New York and Georgia. But Louisiana had the highest jail incarceration rate at 377 per 100,000 population.
There were 223,551 people in jail in 1983, or 96 per 100,000 U.S. residents. The 490,442 people in jail on June 30, 1994, meant an incarceration rate of 188 per 100,000 population, the report said.
In 1983, about one in every 10 inmates - or 20,900 - was a suspected or convicted drug offender. By 1989 the number rose to 91,000, or almost one in four inmates. The 1993 estimate was based on the previous years' figures.
The number of arrests rose from 11.7 million in 1983 to 14 million in 1993, the report said. In addition to the increase in drug violations, it said, there were higher-than-average increases in arrests for assault and weapon violations.
A growing number of convicted felons were sent to local jails, but the length of sentence for those sent to local jails did not increase.
In June 1994, white non-Hispanics were 39 percent of the jail population, while black non-Hispanics were 44 percent, Hispanics were 15 percent and other races were 2 percent, the study said.
Women were about one-tenth of all jail inmates last year.
KEYWORDS: PRISON JAIL INMATE REPORT JUSTICE DEPARTMENT by CNB