NCJ Number
235511
Date Published
February 2010
Length
26 pages
Annotation
In accordance with statutory mandates, this fourth Connecticut Annual Correctional Population Forecast projects the size of the State's correctional population for 2010.
Abstract
One year ago, in February 2009, the State's Office of Policy and Management (OPM) projected the State's prison population would slowly trend downward over the course of the year. It was projected that the inmate population would decline to approximately 18,600 in January 2010. In actuality, the inmate population declined much faster than the OPM's maximum estimates. Between January 2009 and January 2010, the State's inmate population declined by 925 inmates (4.9 percent). This is the largest annual percentage decline in recent memory, which resulted in the closing of Webster Correctional Institution in Cheshire, a 400-bed minimum-security prison. This decline resulted from a higher percentage of offenders being appropriately supervised in the community. Over the coming year, OPM projects that the prison population will continue to decline, although not at the rate that occurred the last 18 months. Without major changes in existing sentencing trends and guidelines, prison admissions and the mean length-of-stay of inmates should remain relatively constant. The community supervision population, on the other hand, is projected to have a gradual increase over the next 12 months, both stabilizing and reducing the incarcerated population. The appropriate use of community supervision options ensures that prison beds will remain available for the most violent and habitual offenders. 10 charts and appended forecast methodology, community supervision types, timeline of events, and historical trend data