While 1 out of every 142 Americans is now actually in prison, 1 out of every 32 of us is either in prison or on parole from prison, according to yet another report on Americans behaving badly from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
This means that 6.7 million adult men and women -- about 3.1 percent of the total U.S. adult population -- are now very non-voluntary members of America's "correctional community."

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' report Probation and Parole in the United States, 2002, the number of adult persons on probation grew by 63,434 during 2002. Probation is a court-determined period of non-prison supervision served following a conviction. The number of adults on parole increased by 20,808, or 2.8 percent, almost double the 1.5 percent average annual growth since 1995.

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Parole is a period of supervised release following a prison term. By the end of 2002, an all-time record of 4,748,306 adult men and women were either on parole or probation.
Thirty-five states experienced an increase in their probation population during 2002. Ohio had the largest increase (16,024 additional probationers), followed by Washington State (7,487) and California (7,353). Thirteen states reported a probation population decrease, led by Idaho (down 12 percent) and Nebraska (down 8 percent).

About 75 percent of probationers were under active supervision and were required to regularly report to a probation authority in person, by mail or by telephone. Half of all probationers had been convicted of a felony, 49 percent of a misdemeanor and 1 percent of other infractions. Twenty-four percent had been convicted of a drug law violation and 17 percent for driving while intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol.

Of the more than 2 million probationers discharged from supervision, 62 percent successfully completed the terms of their supervision, 14 percent were reincarcerated because of a rule violation or a new offense, 13 percent had their probation sentence revoked without incarceration and 3 percent had absconded.

As of last December 31, about 1 in 5 probationers were women. More than half were white, 1 in 3 were black, 1 in 8 were Hispanic and 2 percent were of other races.

At the end of last year four states had an increase of 20 percent or more in their parole population, led by North Dakota (27 percent), New Mexico (26 percent), Kentucky (23 percent) and Oklahoma (21 percent). Among those states with 100 or more parolees, 17 reported a decrease in their parole population, led by South Carolina (down 14 percent) and Florida (13 percent).

Nearly 448,000 parolees were discharged from supervision during 2002. Forty-five percent had successfully met the conditions of their supervision and 41 percent had been returned to incarceration for violating a rule or committing a new offense. About 9 percent had absconded and 2 percent had failed to meet their parole conditions but were discharged without incarceration.

Among parolees at the end of last year, more than 1 in 7 were women, 42 percent were black, 39 percent white, 18 percent Hispanic and 1 percent were of other races.

Those numbers are alarmingly high .... so now what? seriously, how can this change for the better?

Stop arresting people!

Wow, this is nuts

I don't think that it's an issue of our system is out of whack but, more like we have some silly laws and are far better able to prove guilt now than say a hundred years ago.

Silly laws: Baggy pants are about the stupidest looking thing I've ever seen. I'd rather us go back to Bell Bottoms! Nonetheless, several communities are making it a crime to "bust a sag". Why? Why not just pop them with a public indecency charge and let them pay a nice, hefty fine?

In 1880, it was virtually impossible to proove who stole your horse unless you saw him riding away on it, and even at that, it was still your word against thiers. Today, if someone steels your car, there is LowJac, which tracks your car via GPS, license plates which allow officers to identify vehicles, insurance requiments, registration documentation, video, photograghy, radio communication, Police cruisers with computers that can access the state and local criminal records, a national database for warrents violations...need I go on?

It's no longer an issue of commit a crime and move a county or so away and start all over again. If anything has really changed, it's that people have gotten stupider. Baggy pants, pot-smoking and wiseassing the cop. Any wonder why the jails are full?