US prison population to add 200,000 convicts by 2011: study

Feb. 14, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US prison population ballooned eight-fold
between 1970 and 2005 and will grow by an additional 192,000 convicts
by 2011, according to a new study.

The report by the Pew Charitable Trusts said one in 178 US residents
will live in prison by 2011 and the increase could cost American
taxpayers another 27.5 billion dollars over the next five years in
jail spending.

"After a 700-percent increase in the US prison population between
1970 and 2005, you'd think the nation would finally have run out of
lawbreakers to put behind bars," said the report by Pew's Public
Safety Performance Project.

But figures provided by US states show that 1.7 million people will
be behind bars in 2011, a 13 percent increase that is three times the
growth rate of the US population, the study said.

The Pew data does not include local prisons, whose population in 2005
was nearly 750,000, bringing the total US prison population to 2.2
million people, the largest in the world.

The jail growth will cost states another 15 billion dollars for
prison operations and an additional 12.5 billion dollars to build new
prisons.