The number of Americans under the control of the
criminal justice system grew by 130,700 last year to reach a new high
of nearly 6.9 million, according to a Justice Department report
released today. The total includes people in jail and prison as well as
those on probation and parole. This is about 3.2 percent of the adult
population in the United States, the report said. The growth in what
the report termed the "correctional population" comes at a time when
the crime rate nationwide has been relatively stable for several years.
It also comes when many states, faced with budget deficits, have passed
new, less strict sentencing laws in an attempt to reduce the number of
inmates. [more]
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