5.1% of U.S. Males to Face Prison Terms, Report Says

As many as 5.1% of U.S. males are likely to serve some time in state prisons, about 14 times the percentage of women expected to be imprisoned during their lifetimes, according to a report released Sunday by the Justice Department.

The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics also reported that blacks have the highest chances of being imprisoned. On any given day in 1982, the most recent year for which data was available, 2% of the nation’s black males were in state prisons, the report said.

The bureau’s director, Steven R. Schlesinger, said the report’s findings also suggest that “the proportion of the population punished by imprisonment is much larger than many may realize.”

The report indicated that tougher attitudes toward criminals in recent years may have contributed to prison population increases. State prison populations declined in the 1960s, even though crime increased, the study showed. In the 1970s, however, a marked shift in public opinion toward criminals, including renewed support for the death penalty, triggered a response from the judicial system, it said.

Prison Population Up

From 1970 to 1979, the number of persons in state prisons rose 39%, the largest increase in 50 years, the report said. Since 1980, the imprisonment rate has risen 36%. Today, one in every 500 adults is likely to be in a state prison on any given day, the report said.

As of December, 1984, 0.2% of the nation’s 175 million adults, or 429,603 persons, were in state prisons, the report said.

The study, based on surveys of prison inmates in 1974 and 1979, also found that about 3% of black males in their 20s are in state prisons on any given day, compared to 0.4% of white males of the same age.

Figures recorded from 1978 to 1982 showed that black women were eight times more likely than white females and six times more likely than other females to be inmates in state prisons, the report said.

Highest Among White Women

But it noted that, although imprisonment rates increased for all categories of men and women during this period, the rate of increase was highest among white females, at 43%.

The bureau said new data will make it possible to calculate the rates at which inmates return to prison. Its findings suggest that hardened criminals are the least deterred by imprisonment.

The report concluded that 29% to 38% of adults in state prisons will return for a second sentence, between 40% and 46% of second-termers will be back for a third sentence and between 43% and 53% of those serving a third term will return for a fourth sentence.