La.’s incarceration rate leads nation, federal study shows

• By BILL LODGE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jun 11, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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In Louisiana last year, 857 of every 100,000 residents were in prison — a rate that led the nation, federal records show.

Statistics released by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics are for the first half of 2007. Officials note Louisiana also led the nation, with 824 inmates per 100,000 residents, in a similar study completed in 2005.

At 723, Mississippi had the second-highest rate of imprisonment in early 2007.

The bureau’s report was released at a time when the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts concluded that taxpayers are losing bang from their bucks because of decisions by many states to imprison more offenders for longer periods. Pew researchers said such policies are draining money from other programs, such as education and health care.

“Prison costs are blowing holes in state budgets but barely making a dent in recidivism rates,” Pew researchers conclude in a report titled “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008.”

Those costs to state budgets totaled more than $44 billion last year, according to Pew.

Cecile Guin, director of the Office of Social Service Research and Development at LSU, expressed frustration over the federal statistics and Pew’s findings.

“We cannot get our correctional policy to change in this state,” Guin said. “Over the last 10 years, violent crime has decreased, but incarceration continues to increase.”

Guin added: “Somewhere down the line, this state is going to have to choose between incarceration and education.”

Pew researchers note that Louisiana spends 46 cents on corrections for every dollar it spends on higher education.

“As state budgets shrink, the choices are becoming more and more painful,” said Adam Gelb, who directed the study that resulted in the Pew report. “We’re seeing cuts in education and health care and other pressing priorities.”

Across the nation, Pew researchers said, the annual cost of holding a younger prisoner ranges from $23,000 to about $35,000. Older prisoners, they said, cost about $70,000 a year because of medical and other problems.

“Some crimes are so heinous they warrant a lifetime behind bars,” the Pew report observes. “But states are spending more and more on inmates who are less and less of a threat to public safety.”