THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508280046
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A record 5.1 million Americans were either behind bars or on probation or parole at the end of last year, the Justice Department reported Sunday, noting that as prisons and jails overflow, the use of supervision in the community has increased.
The total number under some kind of correctional supervision amounted to almost 2.7 percent of the nation's adult population.
Nearly three out of four were being supervised in the community on probation or parole rather than in cells, according to the department's Bureau of Justices Statistics.
Since 1980, the number of people in prison or jail or on probation or parole has almost tripled, growing at an average rate of 7.6 percent a year and at an actual rate of 3.9 percent in 1994.
The resulting pressure on already overcrowded prisons and jails has pushed up the overall use of probation and parole, even though the federal government and some jurisdictions have eliminated parole for those who committed crimes in recent years. Virginia abolished parole for all those convicted of crimes after Jan. 1.
Overall, the state and federal probation population rose 2 percent in 1994 and the overall parole population grew by 2.1 percent.
At the end of 1994, 2,962,000 adults were on probation and another 690,000 were on parole.
Three-fourths of the probationers and parolees were maintaining required, regular contact with a supervising agency, Justice said.
The remainder were equally divided between those who were not required to have regular contact and those who had failed to report and could not be located.
Half of all offenders on probation in 1994 had been convicted of a felony; the rest of lesser crimes.
One in seven probationers had been convicted of driving while intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol.
Of the parolees, 95 percent had served time behind bars for felonies; the rest had been incarcerated for lesser crimes.
About 21 percent of the nation's probationers were women, as were 10 percent of the parolees. About 58 percent of the adults on probation were white and 32 percent were black. Fifty-one percent of adults on parole were white and 32 percent black. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
DEFINITIONS
Parole is a conditional release from custody by special parole
officials of prisoners who have served part of their sentence; they
remain subject to being locked up again if they violate certain
rules.
Probation is imposed by judges and might or might not follow
incarceration. Probation can have a variety of reporting
requirements and rules, such as restrictions on travel or use of
alcohol or drugs.
KEYWORDS: PAROLE PROBATION U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STUDY by CNB