Texas leads US in incarceration growth

Despite lackluster record on crime, one in 5 new prisoners added
nationally during the 1990s were added in Texas.

One out of 20 adult Texans under criminal justice control

Washington, DC: The Texas prison system grew faster than any other
prison system in the country during the 1990s, adding nearly one out of
every 5 prisoners to the nation's prison boom. In a new study to be
released by the Washington, DC-based Justice Policy Institute on August
29th, the criminal justice think tank found that one out of every 20
adults in Texas were either in prison, jail, on probation or on parole.
There are more people in prison in Texas than in any other state, and
Texas' incarceration rate is second only to Louisiana.

"Out of every 20 adult Texans you meet, one is under criminal justice
control," stated Vincent Schiraldi, the Institute's Director and report
co-author. "The sheer numbers of people in prison and jail in Texas are
signs of system fixated on punishment, and devoid of compassion."

Other significant findings reported in the study include: Texas just
earned the dubious distinction of having the largest prison population
in the country (163,190), surpassing the prison population of California
(163,067), which has 13 million more citizens than Texas. The Lone Star
State has more than 700,000 of its citizens under criminal justice
control.

The average annual growth of Texas' prison population during the 1990s
(11.8%) was not only the highest growth in the nation, but was almost
twice the average annual growth of the other US states (6.1%) during the
1990s.

If Texas were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in
the world, easily surpassing the United States and Russia, the next two
finishers, and seven times that of the next biggest prison system in
China.

Blacks in Texas are incarcerated at seven times the rate of whites, and
nearly one in three young African American men in Texas is under some
form of criminal justice control. The incarceration rate for Blacks in
Texas is 63% higher than the national incarceration rate for blacks.
Despite adding more than 100,000 prisoners this decade, Texas' crime
rate has declined much more slowly than other large states. From 1995 to
1998, Texas' crime rate fell (-5.1%) at half the national average
(-10%), and the least of any of the nation's five largest states
[California (-23%), Florida (-5.9%), Illinois (-9.0%), or New York
(-21.1%)].
There are 89,400 people being incarcerated in Texas for non-violent
crimes. Standing alone amongst the states, Texas' non-violent prison
population represents the second largest incarcerated population in the
country (after California), and is larger than the entire prisoner
population (violent, and nonviolent) of the United Kingdom - a country
of 60 million people, or New York, the nation's third largest state.

The Institute drew a specific comparison between Texas and New York, the
state closest in size to Texas. During the 1990s, Texas added more
prisoners to its prison system (+98,081) than New York's entire prison
population (73,233) by some 24,848 prisoners. This means that the number
of prisoners that Texas added during the 1990s was 34% higher than New
York's entire prison population. While Texas had the fastest growing
prison system in the country during the 1990s, New York had the third
slowest growing prison population in the US. Over all, during the 1990s,
Texas added five times as many prisoners as New York did (18,001).

Yet since 1995, the study found that New York's decline in crime was
four times greater than Texas' decline in crime. Texas' current
incarceration rate (1,035 per 100,000) is 80% higher than New York's
(574 per 100,000), yet Texas' crime rate (5,111 per 100,000) is 30%
higher than New York's (3,588 per 100,000). In 1998, Texas' murder rate
was 25% higher than New York State's rate.

"If locking more people up really reduced crime, Texas should have the
lowest crime rate in the country," says Jason Ziedenberg, Senior
Researcher at the Institute and report co-author. "The cost of having 1
in 3 young black men under criminal justice control is a steep price to
pay for the states' lackluster crime declines."

Texas Tough: An Analysis of Incarceration and Crime Trends in the Lone
Star State is available for review by the media at www.cjcj.org/texas.
The Justice Policy Institute is a research and public policy
organization in Washington, DC. JPI is a project of the Center on
Juvenile and Criminal Justice. This study was funded by a grant from the
Center on Crime, Communities and Culture.

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