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CRIME RATES DOWN; PRISON, JAIL POPULATIONS CONTINUE TO CLIMB

While the national crime rate has dropped in the last 10 years, the number of people in prison and jail is outpacing the number of inmates released, a federal government report states. 

The population of the nation's prisons and jails has grown by about 900 inmates each week between mid-2003 and mid-2004, according to figures released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.  By last June 30 the system held 2.1 million people, or one in every 138 U.S.  residents. 

District Attorney Richard L.  Gray said his office was responsible for putting more people in prison in 2004 than his first year in office ( 2003 ).  He said the pace in 2005 seems to be close to what it was a year ago. 

"If it's a violent offense we try to send them off the first time," he said.  "But, if that's not the case, we try to use our community sentencing and drug court programs."

Gray said both programs are huge successes, especially in Cherokee and Wagoner counties. 

"I'd say we're sending more to prison now since we've started getting our caseload under control," he said.  "In 2003, we were trying to clean up the dockets."

Sanctions, such as jail time, can eventually be ordered in community sentencing and drug court cases. 

"We have some people who really work at being sent to prison," Gray said.  "They don't complete community sentencing or drug court requirements or regular probation guidelines and my office and the courts are left with no other option."

Cherokee County Sheriff Norman Fisher, who's been in office since January, said the population in the county jail has been at or below the 31-inmate capacity for most of the time he's been in office.  He points to more than one factor for the lower numbers. 

"I think part of it is that the DA's office is sending a lot of people to the pen," he said.  "We're also working with the district attorney and the court on getting the non-violent people out of jail when we can."

Fisher said he and his deputies and investigators are doing their jobs and making arrests.  He said he also believes there has been some reduction in the crime rate. 

"I think all of those things together is why our jail population is like it is," he said.  "We also don't run the risk of being over capacity when the jail inspector comes."

Steve Young, Tahlequah's interim-police chief, said the city jail is only a 10-day holding facility. 

"All of our felonies and some of our misdemeanors go upstairs to the county jail for prosecution through the district court," he said.  "A lot of our arrests are alcohol-related."

Young said the department has also participated with the District 27 drug task force in recent months on some drug search warrants as well as making some drug arrests on traffic stops. 

Paige Harrison, the federal report's co-author, told the Associated Press the increase can be attributed largely to get-tough policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s.  Among them are mandatory drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws for repeat offenders and "truth-in-sentencing" laws that restrict early releases. 

"As a whole, most of these policies remain in place," she said.  "These policies were a reaction to the rise in crime in the '80s and early '90s."

Malcolm Young, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which promotes alternatives to prison, said, "We're working under the burden of laws and practices that have developed over 30 years that have focused on punishment and prison as our primary response to crime."

He said many of those incarcerated are not serious or violent offenders, but are low-level drug offenders.  Young said the prison population could be lowered by introducing drug treatment programs that offer effective ways of changing behavior and by providing appropriate assistance for the mentally ill. 

Gray said his office has sent several drug offenders to prison as well.  He said he believes there's been a reduction in the number of methamphetamine labs and attributes that to the state's tougher pseudoephedrine law and other efforts. 

"We've taken out a lot of big-level cooks," Gray said. 

The Justice Policy Institute, which advocates a more lenient system of punishment, says the United States has a higher rate of incarceration than any other country, followed by Great Britain, China, France, Japan and Nigeria. 

Learn more

You can learn more about prison populations and crime rates by going online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.