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: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

BOP increases of 7,000 by federalizing state crimes, immigrants, and women

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Prisons Swollen by Foreigners, Druggies By NICK WILSON Courthouse News Thursday, March 18, 2010 WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. has more prisoners per capita than any other nation while the federal prison population - half of it made up of drug offenders - is swollen by growing numbers of women and foreign inmates. They are stretching the seams of institutions that are nearly 40 percent over capacity, said prison director Harley Lappin. At a Thursday hearing, Committee Chairman Alan Mollohan asked, "Where in the world are you going to put these people?" The federal government holds 210,000 people in prison. Roughly 18 percent of the inmates are housed in private prisons run by contractors. The other 172,000 inmates are squeezed into government facilities that only have a listed capacity of 126,000 beds, which means the buildings hold 37 percent more prisoners than their designs allow...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on March 19, 2010 (boomark / email).