incarceration

[Doug Henwood]

The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates of the mid-1998 prison & jail
populations are out <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/pjim98.txt>.
Growth in the prison population over 1997 slowed to a mere 4.8%, from the
6.9% growth rate since 1990. Growth in the jail population was 4.5%, vs.
the post-1990 average of 4.9%. Since population growth in the U.S. is about
1% a year, the incarceration rate is still rising strongly.

Doug