Fewer landing behind bars

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

For the first time in more than a decade, Nevada's prison population has leveled out with 45 fewer inmates behind bars than there were a year ago.

Throughout the 1980s, on a per-capita basis Nevada ranked No. 1 in the number of inmates held in its prisons. This year, with 542 inmates per 100,000 residents, the state ranks sixth highest, according to a new Department of Justice report.

"We were in a growth mode till January of this year. That's when the population began to flatten out," Glen Whorton, spokesman for the state Department of Prisons, said.

Last week's in-house prisoner head count in Nevada was 9,115 compared with 9,155 last year.

"That's relatively unusual. I don't recall seeing that kind of leveling since 1987," Whorton said.

Miles Long, warden of a new state prison under construction at Indian Springs, isn't impressed by the leveling off.

"I think 45 is an extremely small number. I would not call that a downward trend," he said.

The new prison, scheduled to open in about a year, will hold between 1,800 and 1,900 inmates.

The decline in the prison population in Nevada, however small, coincides with a steady fall in the crime rate, which some experts have attributed to demographics -- there are fewer young men, who historically commit a large percentage of crime. Serious crime in Las Vegas fell 12 percent between 1997 and 1998.

Whorton was reluctant to speculate on a cause-and-effect relationship that is contributing to the shrinking prison population in Nevada, which is following a national trend of a slow-down in the number of prisoners around the country.

"I don't know if we can attribute any cause to any effect," Whorton said last week.

He recalled the speculation in the 1970s that when the federal government lowered the speed limit to 55 mph in an effort to save gasoline some officials noted that there were fewer deaths on the highway and drew a connection between that and reduced speed.

"But at the same time less driving was going on as well because we were in an oil crisis," Whorton said. "Somebody can say something, but that doesn't make it true."

Nevertheless, Whorton noted a lot of factors could be at work, including a healthy economy that might divert would-be criminals from breaking the law; adoption of truth-in-sentencing guidelines; and programs that are diverting people from the prison system.

Long subscribes to the theory that the shrinking prison population is more due to alternative sentencing -- such as house arrest and probation -- than to fewer crimes.

He said the alternative methods are good as long as the candidates are carefully selected and dangerous criminals are not put out on the streets.

According to the federal report, Nevada's prisons are holding 42 percent more inmates than they were designed for.

Though the state's prison population has declined since January according to state officials, the population increased 6.9 percent from 1997 to 1998, the timeframe studied by the Department of Justice. That rate that has been consistent for the past several years.

Nationally as of Dec. 30, 1998, there were 1,178,978 state prisoners and 123,041 federal inmates for a total of 1,302,019, the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics recently said.

That was up 59,866 or 4.8 percent from 1997 -- below the average annual increase of 63,144 or 6.7 percent since 1990 and the lowest rate of growth since a 2.3 percent boost in 1979.

Counting the 592,000 jail inmates as well, more than 1.8 million men and women were behind bars in the United States, the report said. That represented an incarceration rate of 627 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, a rate higher than in any other country except Russia.

Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration, 736 per 100,000, while Minnesota has the lowest at 117.

At the same time the nation's prison population showed a decline, there was a wide range among the states in the numbers of people on parole and probation.

For example, according to the Justice Department, the number of people in parole in Virginia between 1997 and 1998 declined 27 percent while the state of Ohio had a 55 percent increase.

Nevada had a 17.1 percent increase in the number of people on parole and a 7.6 percent increase in the number on probation during that period.

Eleven states reported declines in their probation populations.

The national report says the crime rate has been declining in America since 1993, and that now is being reflected in the prison population.

Before the recent decline in the number of inmates, there was a steady increase in the prison population. According to the report the increase was due to a number of factors, including expansion of mandatory minimum sentences and longer sentences, especially for drug crimes during the 1980s and for violent crimes in the 1990s, coupled with less generous paroles continued to drive prison populations up.

The national incarceration rate rose from one of every 2l7 residents in 1990 to one in every 149 in 1998, the bureau reported.

"There are beginning to be some signs of stability in the prison population," said statistician Allen J. Beck, co-author of the federal report.

Only 4 percent of the state inmate growth from 1990 through 1997, the latest available data, came from new court cases.

"That small increase from new court commitments reflects a declining number of arrests for violent crimes, including murder, robbery, rape and assault," Beck said.

"The increasing length of stay in prison is the biggest factor pushing prison populations up at this point," he said.

The growth is largest among inmates serving three to five years behind bars, with a smaller increase among those serving 20 years or life.

The result is that the average time served increased from 22 months in 1990 to 27 months in 1997, the report said. New prisoners expected to serve 38 months in 1990, but 43 months in 1997. Meantime, inmate release rates dropped from 37 percent in 1990 to 31 percent in 1997.

The 1990-1997 period also saw a 39 percent increase in the number of parole violators returned to prison, although Beck said that is beginning to level off.

Other findings in the study include:

* State prisons held 13 percent to 22 percent more inmates than they were designed to.

* The federal system was 27 percent over capacity.

* California had the most crowded system, holding twice the number of inmates than it was designed for.

* Utah was the least crowded at 81 percent of capacity.

The Associated Press

contributed to this report.