Big Prisons, Big Dreams: Crime and the Failure of America's Penal System

Chapter 3: The Growth of America’s Prison System

49 Chapter 3 The Growth of America’s Prison System The United States has the world’s largest prison system . At mid-year 2005, federal and state prisons in the United States housed more than 1.4 million inmates (Harrison and Beck, 2006). Given the long-term and recent trends in imprisonment in the United States, we can estimate that the U.S. prison population will surpass the 2 million inmate mark before 2010. Only a decade ago (1994), the U.S prison system had just managed to squeeze in its one-millionth inmate. In 1986, the system incarcerated 500,000 inmates, which was twice the number of inmates incarcerated in 1976. To make a long (three decade) story short, in the previous twenty-seven years, the population in U.S. prisons has doubled three times.This rate of growth in imprisonment is unprecedented in the modern history (from 1925 on) of the U.S. prison system. Below, these trends in imprisonment are explored in greater detail. Imprisonment Trends in the United States Since 1925 To get a better feel for these data, prison population growth for the United States is depicted in table 3.1 and figure 3.1.Take a moment to examine the table and graph, taking particular note of the trends you observe in the graph.What you will see may surprise you. The story of the rapidly expanding U.S. prison population began in 1973. Shortly after 1973—1976 to be exact—there were 262,833 prison inmates incarcerated in American prisons, which was twice the number of inmates incarcerated in 1930. The fact that the number of inmates in American prisons had doubled between 1930 and 1976 is, in itself, rather unremarkable because by 1976 the U.S. population had increased by about 74 percent over its 1930 level. Still, while the population of Table 3.1 Rates of Imprisonment Per 100,000 Population, United States, 1925–2003 Year Number Imprisoned Imprisonment Rate Imprisonment Index 1925 91,669 79 82 1926 97,991 83 86 1927 109,983 91 95 1928 116,390 96 100 1929 120,496 98 102 1930 129,453 104 108 1931 137,082 110 115 1932 137,997 110 115 1933 136,810 109 114 1934 138,316 109 114 1935 144,180 113 118 1936 145,038 113 118 1937 152,741 118 123 1938 160,285 123 128 1939 179,818 137 143 1940 173,706 131 135 1941 165,439 124 129 1942 150,384 112 117 1943 137,220 103 107 1944 132,456 100 104 1945 133,649 98 102 1946 140,079 99 103 1947 151,305 105 109 1948 155,977 106 110 1949 163,749 109 114 1950 166,123 109 114 1951 165,123 107 112 1952 168,233 107 112 1953 173,579 108 113 (continued) Table 3.1 (continued) Year Number Imprisoned Imprisonment Rate Imprisonment Index 1954 182,901 112 117 1955 185,780 112 117 1956 189,565 113 118 1957 195,414 113 118 1958 205,643 117 122 1959 208,105 117 122 1960 212,953 117 122 1961 220,149 119 124 1962 218,830 117 122 1963 217,283 114 119 1964 214,336 111 116 1965 210,895 108 113 1966 199,654 102 106 1967 194,896 98 102 1968 187,914 94 98 1969 196,007 97 101 1970 196,429 96 100 1971 198,061 95 99 1972 196,092 93 97 1973 204,211 96 100 1974 218,466 102 106 1975 240,593 111 116 1976 262,833 120 125 1977 278,141 126 131 1978 294,396 132 138 1979 301,470 133 139 1980 315,974 139 145 1981 353,673 154 160 1982 395,516 171 178 1983 419,346 179 187 (continued) Table 3.1 (continued) Year Number Imprisoned Imprisonment Rate Imprisonment Index 1984 443,398 188 196 1985 480,568 202 210 1986 522,084 217 226 1987 560,812 231 241 1988 603,732 247 257 1989 680,907 276 288 1990 739,980 297 309 1991 789,610 313 326 1992 846,277 332 346 1993 932,074 359 373 1994 1,016,691 389 405 1995 1,085,022 411 428 1996 1,137,722 427 445 1997 1,194,581 444 462 1998 1,245,402 461 480 1999 1,304,074 463 483 2000 1...