Growth rate in prison populations slows

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The growth in the number of inmates held in state prison systems throughout the United States dropped to a 30-year low last year, and suggested the nation's booming prison population increases may be over, according to a government report released Sunday.

In state prisons, where most of the nation's nearly two million inmates are confined, the increase was 1.5 percent, the smallest annual increase since 1971.

"This may be partly attributable to dropping crime rates, and to the end of longer sentences that were required in the 1990's," one of the report's authors, Allen Beck, told CNN.

The study, which examined statistics from June 1999 to June 2000, was conducted by statisticians in the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It said the total prison population would likely top two million before the end of 2001, but could then level off at about 2.1 million by 2005.

Beck said the slowing growth rate in the state prison systems is in sharp contrast to prison growth rates of more than 5 percent annually throughout the 1990s.

The total prison population as of June 30, 2000 stood at 1,931,859. Of that number, 1,179,214 were in the state prison systems. About half that number -- 621,149 -- were held in local jails, and just 131,496 were in federal prisons.

While inmates serving time for federal offenses made up only about six percent of the total, they were part of the fastest growing prison population, up 9.3 percent from the previous year.

Prison population trends varied significantly from state to state during the year ending June 30, 2000. The largest increases were in Idaho (up 17.9 percent), Delaware (up 12.5 percent), and North Dakota (up 10.5 percent). The largest decreases were in Massachusetts (down 4.8 percent), Alaska (down 4.4 percent), and New York (down 3.1 percent).

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