The Crunch in Federal Prisons

6-4-2010 National:

More prisoners are doing federal time than ever, but Congress isn’t allocating enough funds to pay for them. Prison officials and reformers say a rethink of the system is long overdue.

While cash-strapped states are responding to the nation’s economic crisis by looking for ways to reduce their prison populations, the federal prison system is heading in the opposite direction.


Last year, the 115 federal prisons added 7,000 inmates to their rolls, making a total of 211,000 inmates in federal facilities as of early June—and the figure is expected to grow. The number of federal criminal cases filed annually has increased from 69,575 in fiscal year 2005 to 76,655 in FY 2009.

To make matters more difficult, federal funding isn’t keeping up with the extra burden.

At a U.S. Sentencing Commission hearing in Washington, D.C. last week, U.S. Attorney for Atlanta Sally Quillian Yates said that federal facilities are currently operating at 34 per cent above capacity. And that, she warned, will have “real and detrimental consequences for the safety of prisoners and guards, effective prisoner reentry, and ultimately, public safety.”

The White House appears to have recognized the problem. President Barack Obama is seeking a $600 million increase in the prison system’s budget for next year. The proposal includes filling an additional 1,200 correctional staff positions and opening three new facilities.

But the question is whether a budget-conscious Congress will go along. The prison system already eats up $6.8 billion, making it the second-largest component of the Justice Department’s budget, just below the FBI.

What accounts for the rise in federal prison inmates?

While white-collar criminals like Bernard Madoff get a big share of news coverage, they constitute only a small minority of the federal prison population. Slightly over half of current federal prisoners (52 percent) are doing time for drug-related crimes. While the average sentence for drug trafficking has held steady in recent years (six to seven years), it is a key factor contributing to the pressure on federal prisons. Another factor is the government’s crackdown on immigration violators, who account for another 11 percent of federal prisoners. An additional eight percent are in for for violent crimes. Adding to the pressure, about 11 percent of federal prisoners require high-security facilities. ..For the remainder of this article.. Jessica Pupovac