ID: Prison Population Growing Fast

In Idaho, 7,382 people are in prison or county jail. Around 13,000 people in the state are on probation or parole. If you break those numbers down, one out of every 34 men in the state are in prison, jail or on parole. One out of every 157 women are locked up in jail or prison.

The Director of Correction for Idaho, Brent Reinke, attributes Idaho’s growing prison and jail population to state policies that have increased the lengths of prison sentences, not more crime. In other words, more people are locked up today in Idaho than ever before, not because there is more crime in the state, but because the state legislature has passed laws created longer sentences.

This news brief is based on a story from KTVB.com, Idaho’s Prison Population Continues to Rise. If the link is broken, check the web site’s archives.