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September 8, 2022
New Sentencing Project report addresses "How Many People Are Spending Over a Decade in Prison?"
The Sentencing Project has long done a lot of great work on long sentences, especially through various reports on life sentences (examples here and here). Today, The Sentencing Project has a notable new publication looking at persons serving sentences of a decade or longer. This new report is titled with a question: "How Many People Are Spending Over a Decade in Prison?". But the subtitle of the report provides this answer: "In 2019, over half of the people in U.S. prisons — amounting to more than 770,000 people — were serving sentences of 10 years or longer — a huge jump from 2000." Here are other "key findings" from the start of the report:
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Nearly one in five people in U.S. prisons—over 260,000 people—had already served at least 10 years in 2019. This is an increase from 133,000 people in 2000—which represented 10% of the prison population in that year.
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In California, 29% of imprisoned people had already served at least 10 years in 2019. In Washington, DC, the level was even higher in 2020, at 39%. By 2021 in Texas, 25% of imprisoned people had served at least a decade.
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Over 770,000 people in U.S. prisons were serving sentences of 10 years or longer in 2019—56% of the total prison population. This is an increase from 587,000 people in 2000—which represented 44% of the prison population in that year.
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The 12 U.S. jurisdictions where two-thirds or more of the prison population are serving sentences of at least a decade are: Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Montana, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, and Washington, DC.
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In 2019, Black Americans represented 14% of the total U.S. population, 33% of the total prison population, and 46% of the prison population who had already served at least 10 years.
September 8, 2022 at 11:43 AM | Permalink
Comments
Successful re-entry back into American "free world" society will be almost impossible for most of the inmates who have served 10 years or more. Except for the construction trades, few employers will consider hiring them. My memory is that about 67% of ALL released inmates will be arrested again within 3 years of release. I would bet that for inmates who have served 10 years or more, the percentage is even higher. Doug, can you find recidivism numbers/ percentages for inmates who have served 10 years or more? Some of those inmates have become so institutionalized that they can not or will not live and work in the free world society.
Posted by: Jim Gormley | Sep 9, 2022 6:54:12 AM
The numbers should be higher.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Sep 13, 2022 10:46:55 AM