Pubdate: Sat, 19 Feb 2005
Source: Saturday Gazette-Mail, The (WV)
Copyright: 2005 The Charleston Gazette
Contact: http://www.saturdaygazettemail.com/about/contact/
Website: http://www.saturdaygazettemail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3496
Author: Toby Coleman, Staff writer

PRISON POPULATION TO RISE BY THOUSANDS

The state's prison population will grow from a little more than 5,000
today to nearly 7,000 in 2014, according to a report released by the
state's Criminal Justice Analysis Center Friday.

The center predicts prison growth will be sparked by the increased
imprisonment of thieves, drug users and other non-violent offenders.

"While the growth in the correctional population is forecasted to be
less than what was observed in the 1990s, the current projections
imply that public officials and correctional administrators should
plan for a larger correctional population in the future," wrote the
report's authors, center director Stephen Hass and Theresa Lester.

The report comes as Gov. Joe Manchin and other state leaders are
trying to grapple with the costs of a decade of explosive prison
growth. In the last 10 years, the state has doubled prison spending to
$103 million as the number of inmates ballooned from 2,325 in 1994 to
5,067 in 2004.

Earlier this week, the state Council of Churches, the Appalachian
Institute of Wheeling Jesuit University and Grassroots Leadership of
Charlotte, N.C., called on the state to freeze prison spending and
take steps to stem the growth of its prison population.

If the prison population continues to grow, "it will be an enormous
drag on the budget," said Jill Kriesky of the Appalachian Institute.

West Virginia's prison population remains small when compared to the
rest of the country. Its incarceration rate of 260 inmates per 100,000
people was 41st in the nation.

But in the last decade, the state is expanding its prison population
by an average of 8.3 percent a year. Only North Dakota and Oregon have
been expanding their prisons at a faster rate.

More and more prisoners are nonviolent offenders convicted of things
such as burglary, drug crimes and property offenses, according to the
report.

And they are staying longer. While violent offenders have seen their
average sentence drop in the last five years, the report said
nonviolent offenders have watched the average sentence for property
and drug crimes go up.

About 85 percent of West Virginia's prisoners are white. About 14
percent of the prisoners are black, a disproportionately large group
in a state where about 3 percent of all residents are black, the
report said.

The report predicts little will change in the next
decade.

The prison population will go up, albeit at a slower average annual
rate of about 4 percent. Judges will continue to send more nonviolent
offenders to prison than they did the year before.

The report's authors did not say if their estimates for prison growth
would change if the state began funding more programs that allow
judges to put people in community corrections programs instead of prison.

Advocacy groups like the state Council of Churches say that the state
could reduce its prison population by expanding community corrections
programs and paroling more inmates.

Manchin has proposed expanding the state's community corrections
program. It is in place in the state's Northern Panhandle, Logan
County and Mercer County.
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