Overall Prison Population Shows Decreasing Trend

Overall Prison Population Shows Decreasing Trend

A recent report from The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy organization, shows an overall 2.9% decline in the number of prisoners in both federal and state prisons from 1999 to 2014. This has been accomplished by various changes in practice and policy that have been implemented to help reduce prison sentencing, both in numbers and length of incarceration. Surprisingly, the states with the largest decline in prisoners have shown no negative effects on public safety. Some of the measures that have helped in the population reduction include fewer parolees with technical violations being sent to prison, reforms in drug policy sentencing, and use of community service and other options for lower-level crimes.

The state prison population in the country peaked in 2009, while the federal prison system’s peak was 2011. Since that time, 39 states have shown decreases. Although many of the decreases were less than the 2.9% average, twelve states reduced their prison population by double digits. The most significant reductions were in New Jersey (31.4%), New York (28.1%), Rhode Island (25.5%), and California (21.8%). It should be noted, however, that California has had an increase in local jail use. Other states with decreases between 11.3 and 18.5% were Connecticut, Mississippi, Hawaii, Michigan, Vermont, Alaska, South Carolina, and Colorado.

Despite the overall trend of reduced prison populations, eleven states showed increases during this 15-year time period. North Carolina, Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota, Tennessee, North Dakota, and New Mexico saw prison populations rise by 2.6 to 8.5% by 2014. The worst increases were in Oklahoma (11.7%), Wyoming (14.8%), Arkansas (17.7%), and Nebraska with a whopping 21.7% increase. Although these states have experienced a drop in crime, the legal system has resisted the national trend toward decreasing prison populations.