Washington, DC: The U.S. correctional population swelled to a record 7.3 million people in 2007, according to a study released this week by the nonprofit group Pew Center on the States.
In all, one in 31 adults – including a disproportionate number of African Americans – in the United States is incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, the study found.
“Black adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. One in 11 black adults – 9.2 percent – was under correctional supervision at year-end 2007,” the study determined. “And although the number of female offenders continues to grow, men of all races are under correctional control at a rate five times that of women.”
In Georgia, one in 13 adults is under correctional supervision, the highest percentage of any state in the nation.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500, or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, One in 100: Behind bars in America 2008, is available online at: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=35912.