Washington, DC: One out of every 32 adults is under the supervision of the US criminal justice system, according to a report published this week by the US Department of Justice.

"The total federal, state, and local adult correctional population - incarcerated or in the community - grew by 130,700 during 2003 to reach a new high of nearly 6.9 million," the report found. Of those, approximately 4.8 million Americans are on supervised probation or parole; an estimated 2.1 million Americans are in state or federal prisons or local jails.

Twenty five percent of those on probation - or slightly more than one million Americans - are on probation for drug law violations, the study determined. Approximately 25 percent of all incarcerated adults are serving time for drug violations.

The total number of adults in state or federal prisons, local jails, or under the supervision of probation or parole authorities has increased approximately 20 percent since 1995, authors found.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-5500. Text of the US Department of Justice study, "Probation and Parole in the United States, 2003," is available online at:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ppus03.htm