U.S. Incarceration Rates Reach New High

3/13/2008

According to a new study by the Pew Center on the States, the national prison population grew by more than 25,000 last year. Now more than 1 in 100 adults in the U.S. are in prison.

The New York Times reports:

The report’s methodology differed from that used by the Justice Department, which calculates the incarceration rate by using the total population rather than the adult population as the denominator. Using the department’s methodology, about one in 130 Americans is behind bars.

Even so, the Justice Department reports even higher levels of incarceration among certain groups:

One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

According to the center's managing director, “we aren’t really getting the return in public safety from this level of incarceration.”

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