The justice system imprisons barely one criminal for every 100 violent crimes. On any given day, seven offenders are on the street for every three who are behind bars. 45 percent of state prisoners were persons who, at the time they committed their latest crimes, were on probation or parole. Over half of the rapes against children were committed by criminals on probation or parole. Most violent prisoners serve less than half their time in prison before being released.
Most prisons are neither overcrowded nor without substantial programs for inmates.
In 1991, about 51,000 male juveniles were in custody, a third for violent offenses. In 1992 alone, there were over 110,000 juvenile arrests for violent crimes and over 1.6 million juvenile arrests for other crimes. Since 1974, over 90 percent of all state prisoners have been violent offenders or recidivists. This is just a sample of information available in this 58 page report. We will be printing data from this report in future newsletters.