Pew study finds one in 31 U.S. citizens are criminals

William Atkins
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 02:01

Science - Biology

According to the Pew Center on the States, at the beginning of 2008, 2.3 million Americans were in jail or prison, or on parole or probation; that is, 1 in 100. At the beginning of 2009, that number had climbed to 7.3 million Americans; that is, 3.23 in 100, or 1 in 31.


As a comparison on the long-term trend, in 1982, the number of U.S. adults in jail or prison stood at one in 77.

One of the primary reasons why this number changed so drastically from 2008 to 2009 is that there has been a dramatic growth in the number of people on probation or parole in the United States.

Over two-thirds of these people on parole and probation still live in the communities in which they committed their crimes.

One in 45 American adults are on probation or parole, while 1 in 100 of them are in prison or jail.

However, almost 90% of the money spent by the states for their correctional systems is spent on prisons.

In the 2009 report made by the Public Safety Performance Project, within the Pew Center on the States, the U.S. states with the highest proportion of its citizens in jail or prison, or on parole or probation were:

(1) Georgia (1 in 13),

(2) Indiana (1 in 26),

(3) Louisiana (1 in 26), and

(4) Ohio (1 in 25).

Idaho, Texas, Massachusetts, Ohio, and the District of Columbia are also high on the list.

However, Georgia seems to lead the pack here, and by a large margin.

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