NCJ Number
164492
Date Published
1989
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The Director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) spoke at the 1996 Corrections Technology Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, about the role of the NIJ in corrections and sentencing.
Abstract
He noted that corrections and sentencing are at a critical juncture due to significant increases in prison populations. About 500,000 Americans were incarcerated in 1980, and this figure increased to 1.5 million by 1995. The population under correctional supervision totaled 1.8 million in 1980, and this figure is projected to increase to 6 million in 1997. At the State level, demands of corrections budgets are competing with demands for higher education. In addition, the mix of prisoners is changing, with more violent inmates, more inmates with health problems, and more inmates with divergent cultural backgrounds. The NIJ values the work of professionals who operate prisons and jails and who administer probation and parole agencies and also places a high priority on sentencing issues. Priority NIJ initiatives include tuberculosis and HIV in correctional facilities, boot camps, correctional health care, drug treatment, drug testing, risk classification systems for probationers, the role of the business sector in providing inmates with employment opportunities, restorative justice programs, three strikes legislation, and hair and urine testing for drug abuse.