Congressional Digest

Excerpt

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 2.3 million people are currently in Federal, State, or local prisons and jails. Close to 7 million Amer­ican adults are in the correctional system, including those on parole or probation or in jail. Overall, since the 1980s, the Federal prison popula­tion — the number of inmates under the supervision of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) — has experienced explo­sive growth, increasing by approximately 5,900 inmates annually. Some of this growth is attributable to changes in Federal criminal …