U.S. Remains World’s No. 1 Jailer, Study Says
In a reflection of the rate at which black males and drug offenders are imprisoned, the United States widened its lead in 1990 as the world’s No. 1 jailer, a study of sentencing patterns showed Monday.
The record 1.1 million inmates in U.S. jails and prisons that year represented a 6.8% increase in the incarceration rate from 1989, while the rate for South Africa, which had the second-highest rate of incarceration, dropped by 6.6%, the study found.
At the same time, the U.S. rate of incarcerating black males climbed to nearly five times the rate in South Africa, after being four times higher a year earlier, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that believes U.S. imprisonment policies are not productive.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the study revealed a “national disgrace. We need to lock up violent criminals, but a decade of packing the nation’s prisons to the rafters with nonviolent offenders has failed to make our streets safer.”
Justice Department officials, however, disputed Kennedy’s contention about imprisoning nonviolent offenders and called the study’s findings “simplistic.”
Larry Greenfeld, chief of correctional statistics at the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, said the study failed to focus on two key criteria--the gravity of the inmates’ offenses and the number and seriousness of their previous criminal violations.
About 95% of the prisoners in America have committed violent crimes or have a long history of criminal activity, he said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
