1 of every 100 U.S. adults behind bars, report says

NEW YORK — For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting the nation's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator.

The report urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008, one of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

The ballooning prison population is largely the result of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been hit particularly hard: One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women ages 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 white women in the same age group.

The report, released Thursday by The Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher-education spending, the report said.

The growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.

The report's methodology differed from that used by the Justice Department, which calculates the incarceration rate by using the total population rather than the adult population as the denominator. Using the department's methodology, about one in 130 Americans is behind bars.

"We aren't really getting the return in public safety from this level of incarceration," said Susan Urahn, the Pew Center's managing director.

Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah and a former federal judge, said the Pew report considered only half of the cost-benefit equation and overlooked the "very tangible benefits: lower crime rates."

In the past 20 years, according to the FBI, rates of violent crimes fell by 25 percent, to 464 per 100,000 people in 2007 from 612.5 in 1987.

"While we certainly want to be smart about who we put into prisons," Cassell said, "it would be a mistake to think that we can release any significant number of prisoners without increasing crime rates. One out of every 100 adults is behind bars because one out of every 100 adults has committed a serious criminal offense."

Urahn said the United States could not afford the incarceration rate documented in the report.

According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states, including Washington, and the federal prison system.

The largest percentage increase — 12 percent — was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate population has increased by 600 percent.

The report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.

"Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers," said the project's director, Adam Gelb.

According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana the least ($13,009).

It said California — which faces a $16 billion budget shortfall — spent $8.8 billion on corrections last year, while Texas, which has slightly more inmates, was a distant second with spending of $3.3 billion.

On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general-fund dollars on corrections, the report said. Oregon had the highest spending rate, at 10.9 percent; Alabama the lowest at 2.6 percent.

Four states — Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut — spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.

Washington state's growth rates in prisoners and spending have followed national trends, said Dave Daniels, research and planning director for the state Department of Corrections.

The state spent $832 million on prisons last year, or 55 cents on prisons for every dollar spent on higher education, the Pew study said.

About 1,200 Washington inmates are sent to prisons out of state because of overcrowding here, Daniels said. Next month, an 892-bed expansion opens in Walla Walla, while a 2,040-bed expansion will open late this year in Connell, Franklin County.

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of almost 230 million U.S. adults.

The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars.

Seattle Times reporter Mike Lindblom contributed to this report, which includes material from The Washington Post.