NCJ Number
182447
Date Published
August 1997
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the Nation’s probation and parole population as of the end of 1996.
Abstract
Almost 3.9 million adult men and women were on probation or parole at the end of 1996, an increase of about 128,000 during the year. The number of offenders being supervised in the community on probation or parole increased 3.4 percent during 1996, compared to the 3.3 percent annual average since 1990. As of December 31, the total number of adults under correctional supervision--incarcerated or in the community--reached a new high of 5.5 million, or 2.8 percent of the US adult population, about one in every 35 adults. At the end of the year, 3,180,363 adult offenders were on probation. An additional 704,709 adults were on parole, which is conditional, supervised release following a prison term; parolees are subject to re-incarceration for rule violations. Almost all of the offenders on parole (96 percent) had served a felony sentence. Women represented a growing percentage of the probation and parole populations nationwide (21 percent of all probationers and 11 percent of all parolees). Just over one-third of probationers and nearly half of parolees were black, while two-thirds of probationers and half of parolees were white. Tables, notes