Even though Utah's prisons were crowded with a record number of inmates in 1991, a new study shows the state still has one of the nation's lowest incarceration rates.
Utah had only 149 prisoners per 100,000 people in 1991 - less than half the national average of 310, according to just-released U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.Only eight states had lower rates. The lowest was North Dakota with a rate of 68. On the other end of the spectrum, the District of Columbia had the highest - 1,168, or nearly four times the national average.
"There are a lot of reasons for the increase," said Chris Mitchell, director of planning and research for the state Department of Corrections. She cited mandatory sentencing, the public's get-tough-on-crime attitude, increased criminal penalties, the war on drugs and tough sex-offender legislation.
"In general, there has been a greater push to put more people in prison," she said.
The report showed that Utah again set a new record for state and federal prisoners held in the state - a total of 2,624, or an increase of 5.1 percent over 1990. Utah's prison population has risen steadily since 1980.
Utah prison populations are projected to grow at 7 to 9 percent annually, but state facilities at Gunnison and Point of the Mountain are currently operating at 96 percent capacity, Mitchell said. And additional prison beds are at least four years away.
"We are working with a task force now to address those issues," Mitchell said. "We asked for more money from the Legislature, but they decided they had other priorities. We are working on ideas, but we can't put people in beds that don't exist."
Officials predict the Utah prison system will face a serious space shortage within the next year. "It's a very real crisis," added department spokesman Dave Franchina. "It's not something we are imagining; we are going to run out of space." That in spite of the department's courtroom victory allowing double bunking.
The report also said Utah was one of 21 states and the District of Columbia that held state prisoners in local jails because of overcrowding during 1991. Utah held 94 such prisoners in local jails, it said.
At year end, the prisons were at 91 percent of their "operational capacity" - or the number of inmates that can be accommodated based on a facility's staff, existing programs and services, the report said.
Nationally, the number of prisoners in state and federal facilities was 823,414 at the end of 1991 - which was also a new record. The increase in the number of state prisoners during the year was 44,208, and the increase in federal prisoners was 4,176.
"The 1991 increase of over 48,000 prisoners equals a demand for approximately 900 new prison beds per week nationwide," the report said. It also meant the increase in the number of inmates nationally since 1980 is about 150 percent.
The incarceration rate also set a new record nationally last year. The rate of 310 per 100,000 residents has risen 123 percent from 1980 when the incarceration rate was just 139 per 100,000. In Utah, the incarceration rate in 1980 was 69 per 100,000 population.