NCJ Number
128225
Date Published
1989
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This report examines sentenced non-citizens in Federal confinement first by considering historical trends and then by seeking to identify and describe those currently confined. The examination will help Bureau of Prison administrators to better focus on this population in order to formulate issues and concerns and to devise effective strategies and approaches for dealing with sentenced non-citizens.
Abstract
Since FY 1980, the number of sentenced non-citizens in Federal prisons has increased by 600 percent, while the overall increase for sentenced offenders was 82.6 percent. At the end of FY 1988, an estimated 6,622 sentenced non-citizens, or 16.6 percent of the total sentenced prisoner population, were confined. The great majority of sentenced non-citizens are from Latin American countries, particularly Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba. They are predominantly white, Hispanic males most of whom are drug law violators. When compared to all sentenced inmates, non-citizens have less serious criminal and prison disciplinary records on the average. Relatively few of these inmates are housed in the lowest security level facilities; most are confined in level two and three institutions. The populations in 19 of the prisons surveyed are composed of at least 20 percent sentenced non-citizens, and 10 of these institutions have more than 30 percent sentenced non-citizens. Several alternative approaches to handling this sentenced non-citizen population are suggested and discussed such as greater use of prisoner exchanges, privatization contracts, and hybrid prison camp arrangements. 4 figures, 3 tables, and 2 notes