NCJ Number
125452
Date Published
1989
Length
79 pages
Annotation
This report documents the characteristics of inmates discharged from New York State Department of Correctional Services facilities in 1987; it analyzes length of time in custody in terms of commitment offense, felony class category of commitment offense, minimum sentence length, and maximum sentence length.
Abstract
Of the nearly 18,000 total releases from New York State correctional facilities, over 12,000 were inmates released to parole supervision for the first time on their current sentence. Of these 12,265, 52 percent were committed for legislatively designated violent felony offenses, 6 percent for other violent offenses, 20 percent for drug offenses, and 22 percent for property and other offenses. The average time served by this population in State correctional facilities was 27.7 months, while the average total time served in custody was 33.4 months. Second felony offenders served an average of 5.5 months longer than first felony offenders. The length of time served in custody is strongly correlated to the length of minimum sentence. Overall, when considering the felony class category of conviction offense, male inmates serve slightly longer time periods than do female inmates while the average time in custody is similar for whites, blacks, and Hispanics.