Virginia’s state prison population has remained relatively stable over the past two years, while state prison population in the U.S. as a whole has dropped for the first time since 1972.
Over 1.6 million people were serving time in state and federal prisons as of Dec. 31, 2009, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, released yesterday by the Justice Policy Institute. Only 208,118 of those persons were incarcerated in federal prisons.
Virginia has seen a 26 percent increase in its prison population since 2000, from 30,168 to 38,092. Only six states have reduced their prison populations since 2000, according to JPI: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Delaware and Illinois.
By Deborah Elkins
2 responses so far ↓
1 LarryG // Jun 24, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Is there a resource that tells us how many of the 38,092 are violent offenders?
2 Nancy K // Jun 28, 2010 at 9:40 am
Our tax dollars paying $at least $25,000 per prisoner annually – what a waste!