Population Explosion Costing Taxpayers Billions

The fastest growing population in the United States is not Hispanics. In fact, it is not a single minority or demographic.  In the last 25 years, this populace has swollen by 400 percent creating a dilemma for the justice system.  Yet most Americans are unaware of the crisis.

The population explosion has occurred in the federal prison system. There are more than 210,000 inmates residing in 117 federal institutions and 15 privately-managed facilities, according to a report issued late last year by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In its 139-page report, the GAO documents the surge in the prison population and the increasing federal budget required to maintain and staff the system.  In 2013, taxpayers were tapped for $6.6 billion to operate federal prisons, which represents a 20-fold increase since 1980.

The largest chunk of the prison budget was paid out in compensation and benefits to prison personnel, most of whom are members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).  The tab was $3.9 billion in 2013 for 38,000 employees.  The funding amounted to 59 percent of the budget.

Unless changes are made, the numbers of inmates and tax dollars required to pay for their incarceration will continue to skyrocket.  The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) projects an additional 15 percent growth in the inmate population by 2020.  

Federal prison overcrowding is already epidemic.  Staffing has not kept up with the inmate population, resulting in fewer personnel to police the prisoners.  In some prisons, triple and quadruple bunking in each cell has been used, but it still costs an average of $29,000 annually for each inmate.   

The escalation in inmates appears at odds with the decades-old decline of crime in the United States.  Crime was down 5.4 percent in 2013 from the previous year, reports the FBI.  Since 1990, violent crime has decreased more than 33 percent in America.

There is an explanation for the prison proliferation.  More than 48 percent of the inmates serving time in federal prisons were sentenced on drug charges.  The average prison sentence in 2011 was 52 months for federal inmates.  Drug trafficking sentences averaged 74 months, according to BOP statistics.

Americans get more than a little queasy about suggestions of reducing sentences for inmates.  However, without some modulation,  the number of federal prisons may one day outnumber hotels.  Thus a course correction will be required to dramatically impact the situation.

A few modest proposals for reversing the rising tide of inmates:

1.  Expand the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) operated in federal prisons.  Inmates who successfully complete the program are eligible for a reduction in their sentences.  The problem is today the program cannot meet the demand.  At last count, there were 3,000 inmates on a waiting list, reports the GAO.

2.  Reform sentencing laws to allow more alternatives to incarceration for drug users.  In 2007, Congress approved new guidelines for the threshold for crack cocaine offenses.  But fewer federal offenders are placed on probation because of strict sentencing guidelines.  Without some relaxation, the number of drug offenders in prison will increase exponentially.  

3.  Allow the Bureau of Prisons transfer low-risk inmates to local incarceration facilities.  Under current law, the bureau has no authority to transfer inmates outside its system.  This would facilitate a faster transition of rehabilitated inmates back into society.

4.  Give federal prisons more latitude to lower prison time for good behavior.  At the federal level, all offenders, regardless of crime, must serve 87 percent of their sentence.  Although the bureau does lower sentences for good behavior, it is restricted by current rules on the amount of time that must be served.

Each idea would mean drug offenders would do less jail time, a proposition that scares law-and-order skeptics. However,  the GAO estimated that reducing the sentences of incarcerated drug offenders by an average of 44 percent would save about $4.1 billion in tax dollars.

No one is suggesting freeing hardened criminals.  Only those low-level, nonviolent drug offenders would qualify for early release under the conditions outlined above.  The alternative is to continue to construct more prisons, hire more government workers and increase funding for incarceration.

Faced with those choices, America would be better off trying to attack the problem of reducing the inmate population.