Report: State prison population drops for first time in almost 40 years
The state prison population decreased 0.4 percent in 2009, the first drop in nearly four decades, according to the recently released “Prison Count 2010” Pew Center on the States report. Among several reasons cited for the drop are advances in technology and programs that are delivered in the community, including offender supervision tools, such as GPS tracking, and evidence-based reentry programs that include cognitive behavioral treatment.
As of Jan. 1, there were 1,404,053 persons under the jurisdiction of state prison authorities, 4,777 (0.3 percent) fewer than there were on Dec. 31, 2008, the first such drop in the state prison population since 1972, according to the report. In that period, however, the nation’s total prison population increased by 2,061 people because of a jump in the number of inmates under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The federal count rose by 6,838 prisoners, or 3.4 percent in 2009, to an all-time high of 208,118.
Along with demographic changes in the general population, the Pew Center on the States’ report attributes the decrease to changes in corrections policy and practice, including advances in supervision technology and in the science of behavior change. There also has been an increased accuracy of risk assessments to identify factors that lead to criminal behavior, increased support for prison alternatives from the general public, and increased focus on cost-benefit analyses and program quality. “There’s now a realization on both sides of the aisle that there are research-based strategies to protect public safety and hold offenders accountable without sinking ever more public dollars into prisons,” Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States, said in the report.
Given the advances in technology and programming, paired with greater acceptance of alternative sentencing options and shrinking corrections budgets, the report concludes that its findings may mark the beginning of continued state prison population declines. Download the full version of “Prison Count 2010.”