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There’s a mass of numbers out there dealing with Delaware’s prisons and getting a handle on them is important because prisons are a big part of the budget. The $252 million in the governor’s budget recommendation is the state’s third biggest expenditure.
The central number, of course, is 6,850. That, according to the Department of Corrrection, is the rough estimate of inmates in our prison system at any one time and it’s down slightly from the roughly 7,270 prisoners held in 2007. It’s also down slightly from the approximately 6,920 prisoners we had in 2000.
According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, our inmate population has posted a big drop when compared to the state’s overall population.
A 2008 study from the bureau looking at inmate populations around the country showed that about 30 out of every 100,000 Delawareans was in prison between 2000 and 2007. That’s the fourth most dramatic decline of its kind in the country with only New Jersey, Texas and New York posting bigger changes.
By that measure, Delaware’s actually a lot closer to Texas than our regional neighbors because our overall population’s been on the rise, at a faster rate percentage-wise than our prison population.
It’s encouraging since Delaware is one of five states the operates a unified state prison system without city or county jails and we were the only one of those states that saw such per captia drop.
And as other studies have shown, a lot of the new people coming here are older, which may bode well for our inmate numbers as crime is, for the most part, a young person’s game. As we’ve been drawing in more older people, especially in Sussex County, and more families to Kent and lower New Castle County, we all hope that the downward trend in both absolute numbers as a per captia percentage continues.
One cause for concern is another number, the state’s roughly 8 percent unemployment rate. Remember that number is probably higher, since under rules approved back when Ronald Reagan was president, people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits are no longer counted in unemployment statistics.
We know that a lot of people turn to crime and land in prison because they’re out of work, out of money and out of options. So as our recession lingers, there’s a chance our prison populations may start to climb again.
For now, though, the numbers look good.
But while the numbers may be statistically good, they won’t stop the broader debate in society about whether prison populations are too high and what can be done to lower those numbers more. And it’s a debate we should have because, while there’s always going to be a need for prisons, we need to keep looking for options that keep people out of prison and contributing to society.
Sen. Bruce Ennis is a Democrat representing the 14th Senatorial District, which includes all or parts of Cheswold, Clayton, Delaware City, Dover, Lepsic, Little Creek, Middletown, Smyrna and Townsend.
There’s a mass of numbers out there dealing with Delaware’s prisons and getting a handle on them is important because prisons are a big part of the budget. The $252 million in the governor’s budget recommendation is the state’s third biggest expenditure.
The central number, of course, is 6,850. That, according to the Department of Corrrection, is the rough estimate of inmates in our prison system at any one time and it’s down slightly from the roughly 7,270 prisoners held in 2007. It’s also down slightly from the approximately 6,920 prisoners we had in 2000.
According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, our inmate population has posted a big drop when compared to the state’s overall population.
A 2008 study from the bureau looking at inmate populations around the country showed that about 30 out of every 100,000 Delawareans was in prison between 2000 and 2007. That’s the fourth most dramatic decline of its kind in the country with only New Jersey, Texas and New York posting bigger changes.
By that measure, Delaware’s actually a lot closer to Texas than our regional neighbors because our overall population’s been on the rise, at a faster rate percentage-wise than our prison population.
It’s encouraging since Delaware is one of five states the operates a unified state prison system without city or county jails and we were the only one of those states that saw such per captia drop.
And as other studies have shown, a lot of the new people coming here are older, which may bode well for our inmate numbers as crime is, for the most part, a young person’s game. As we’ve been drawing in more older people, especially in Sussex County, and more families to Kent and lower New Castle County, we all hope that the downward trend in both absolute numbers as a per captia percentage continues.
One cause for concern is another number, the state’s roughly 8 percent unemployment rate. Remember that number is probably higher, since under rules approved back when Ronald Reagan was president, people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits are no longer counted in unemployment statistics.
We know that a lot of people turn to crime and land in prison because they’re out of work, out of money and out of options. So as our recession lingers, there’s a chance our prison populations may start to climb again.
For now, though, the numbers look good.
But while the numbers may be statistically good, they won’t stop the broader debate in society about whether prison populations are too high and what can be done to lower those numbers more. And it’s a debate we should have because, while there’s always going to be a need for prisons, we need to keep looking for options that keep people out of prison and contributing to society.
Sen. Bruce Ennis is a Democrat representing the 14th Senatorial District, which includes all or parts of Cheswold, Clayton, Delaware City, Dover, Lepsic, Little Creek, Middletown, Smyrna and Townsend.
