NEW YORK — Spurred by budget crises, California and Michigan together reduced their prison populations by more than 7,500 last year, contributing to what a new report says is the first nationwide decline in the number of state inmates since 1972.
The drop was slight, according to the Pew Center on the States — just 0.4 percent — but its report suggests there could be a sustained downward trend because of state policymakers interested curtailing corrections costs.
According to state data collected by the Pew Center, 1,403,091 people were under the jurisdiction of state prison authorities on Jan. 1, down by 5,739 from a year earlier. The report, being released today, said this was the first year-to-year drop in the state prison population since 1972, when there were about 174,000 prisoners.
Now, the U.S. the world’s highest incarceration rate.
With more inmates to handle, state corrections costs quadrupled over the past 20 years, according to the report. Many states are now in fiscal disarray, and legislators are looking afresh at ways to curb prison spending.
The Pew report said the nation’s total prison population actually increased in 2009 because the number of inmates in federal prisons rose by 6,838 to an all-time high of 208,118.
The report did not tally prisoners in municipal and county jails.
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