Prison Population Growing, but Slowly

The number of people in state prisons last year increased at the slowest rate since 1971, though the total number of people incarcerated in the United States remained at a record high in 2000, the Justice Department reported.

As of June 2000, 1,931,859 people were in federal, state and local facilities, a 3% increase over June 1999. The increase was primarily in the number of people in federal prisons, researchers said.

The majority of people behind bars in the United States are in state prisons, and this population grew by just 1.5%, the smallest annual growth rate in 29 years, according to a report by the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.