NCJ Number
135544
Date Published
1991
Length
80 pages
Annotation
This report presents a 10-year (1981-90) overview of offender admissions and releases from Georgia's correctional facilities and probation caseloads.
Abstract
Admissions have grown from 8,182 in 1981 to 20,535 in 1990. The number of females admitted to prisons has tripled in the past 10 years while the number of male prison admissions has doubled. The average age at admission for the 1990 prison admissions averaged 30 years old, up from 28 years old in 1981. Prison admissions have changed from one black inmate for every white inmate in 1981 to two black inmates for every white inmate in 1990. Although 41 percent of 1990 admissions reported finishing high school, the average functional reading level was seventh grade. Fewer than one-fifth of Georgia's inmates can read on a 12th-grade level. Only 1 in 10 offenders admitted to prison in 1990 was employed at the time of arrest. Some 12,824 of 1990 prison admissions reported a drug and/or alcohol problem. This number has more than doubled in the past 10 years. Approximately 75 percent of Georgia's prison population are substance abusers. Forty-three percent of the 1990 prison admissions cohort were revocators, and nearly half of 1990's prison admissions had short sentences (3 years or less). The number of women starting probation has tripled in the past 10 years; the number of men has increased 154 percent. The average age of offenders starting probation in 1990 was 29.77 years old, up from 28.21 in 1981. An offender is more likely to be on probation for a substance abuse crime than for any other crime type. 63 tables