NCJ Number
125448
Date Published
1990
Length
93 pages
Annotation
The tables in this document describe the population of new court commitments of New York State Department of Correctional Services facilities in 1988 in terms of legal history and demographic characteristics.
Abstract
According to the report, 74 percent of the total admissions to New York State correctional facilities were new court commitments, 20 percent were returned parole violators, and the remainder were other admissions. The proportion of court commitments comprised of drug offenders has grown dramatically; in 1988, 37 percent of new commitments were drug offenders, compared to 22 percent in 1986 and 33 percent in 1987. Over half the new court commitments were sentenced as first felony offenders (52 percent) and 47 percent as second felony offenders; one percent were classified as persistent felony offenders. The average minimum sentence for this total population was 36.6 months; the average minimum term for legislatively designated violent felony offenders was over 52 months, for drug offenders it was over 30 months, and for property and other offenders it was 20 months. Eleven percent of new commitments had no prior adult arrest record, 11 percent had a prior adult arrest but no conviction, 28 percent had a prior conviction but had not served a sentence, 28 percent had served a local jail sentence, and 2 percent had served a State or Federal prison term. Demographic characteristics include gender, ethnic group, age, region of the State, country of birth, education, and marital status.