Utah prison officials are unhappy over a federal report that ranked Utah fourth in rate of prison population growth last year.
According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice Sunday, the number of federal and state prison inmates zoomed to a record 703,687 nationally last year, a 12.1 percent increase over 1988.The report said Utah's prison population grew at a rate of 21.3 percent last year. Rhode Island's population increased fastest (30.1 percent), followed by Colorado (26.9 percent), South Dakota (25.2 percent) and then Utah.
While Utah officials don't dispute the figures, they are unhappy over the statement they make about Utah's skyrocketing prison population. "That news is something we're not at all pleased about," said Christine Mitchell, director of planning and research at the Utah State Prison. "Our prison is under a great deal of pressure from overcrowding right now. We have 21 percent more people in the prison without any additional space, staff or funding for food," she said. "We have had small increases in those areas over last year, but not very much. Not nearly in proportion to the growth we've had in the past year. It really places pressure on the prison."
The opening of the Gunnison prison in the fall will only ease the pressure for a year or two, Mitchell said.
"I think that probably both Gunnison and Draper will be full very shortly after we open Gunnison - within a year to two years. That's what our population projections show and they have been fairly accurate."
The opening of the Gunnison facility may spark a population increase over the next year that is as great, if not greater, than the past year's growth.
"When we open Gunnison in September, the artificial limitations we have placed on our population will be removed, so the state's overall prison population may rise quite quickly," Mitchell said. "We grew so fast in the past year that I'd hate to say we'd grow that fast again. But I would say we will grow very fast."
Utah can take small comfort in the knowledge that the nation shares its prison population crisis. The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said the nation's prison population increased by 73,043, exceeding a record of 32,000 set in 1982.
"The year was marked by the largest absolute increase in the number of persons confined in state or federal institutions recorded in the 65-year history of this statistical series," said Joseph Bessette, the bureau's acting director.
"The 1989 increase translates into a nationwide need for nearly 1,500 new prison bed spaces per week," the bureau said. Total state inmate population at the end of 1989 was 650,703, federal inmates 52,984. Federal inmate numbers grew at a lower rate (6.1 percent) than state (12.6 percent).
The agency said tougher criminal justice policies adopted between 1980 and 1988 are the likely cause of the increase. Drug offenses account for a large number, including 49 percent of the inmates committed to federal prisons in the past 10 years, officials say.
Murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and burglary are among the most serious crimes and account for about half of prison sentences.
Justice Department statistics show that the female prison population has grown at a higher percentage rate than the male population in each year since 1981 _ to a total 39,689 nationwide. The increase among women last year was 21.8 percent, among men, 11.6 percent.
The number of female inmates in California, 6,000, far exceeded other states. But the District of Columbia, with 574, showed the largest percentage increase (54.3 percent).
A Justice Department spokesman said more women are going to prison because more are involved in drug offenses, and tougher sentencing laws cut across gender lines.
Northeastern states led the nation in the number of sentenced prisoners, with a gain of 16.6 percent. "This marks the first time since 1984 that a region other than the West has had the largest percentage growth in the sentenced prison population," the bureau said.
The numbers grew by 13.9 percent in the West; 13.4 percent in the Midwest, and 9.9 percent in the southern states, the bureau said. Three states _ Kansas, North Dakota and Alaska _ had small decreases in their prison populations last year.