Adult Correctional Systems: A Report Submitted to the Fiscal Affairs and Government Operations Committee

• NCJ Number: 181905
• Author(s): Christopher A. Keaton
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 150 pages
• Corporate Author: Council of State Governments
• Sale Source: Council of State Governments
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A survey of the 16 States in the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) gathered information on the inmate population trends, incarceration rates, prison and jail capacities, staffing patterns, inmate violence, projected costs of new prisons, probation and parole, rehabilitation, prison industries, and privatization in corrections.

Abstract

The States included Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The inmate population in the SLC has more than doubled in the last 10 years from approximately 236,000 to almost 505,000. The southern States also project that the incarceration rate will increase by approximately 33 percent. Almost all the States’ prisons exceed 90 percent capacity. Therefore, States will experience the dilemma of financing new facilities and covering increasing operating costs. States have also enacted laws such as truth in sentencing and the elimination of good time; these laws will increase inmate populations. Figures; tables; and profiles of each State correctional system, population, and initiatives