A New Record in Prison Nation
Prison Nation set a new record. It is a record in which we should take no pride.
A record 7 million people - or one in every 32 American adults - were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday.More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.
Drug offenders accounted for 49 percent of the growth in the federal prison population from 1995 to 2003.
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