Article: Prison population up 4.7%

WASHINGTON Prison population grew 4.7 percent in the first half of 1987 as a record 570,519 inmates jammed state and federal correctional facilities, a Justice Department agency reported Sunday.

Prison officials were forced to add about 1,000 new beds a week to keep up with the influx of 25,386 prisoners, a 7.8 percent increase in the West, 2.5 percent in the South, 4.6 percent in the Midwest and 5.1 percent in the Northeast, said the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Prison populations ranged from a low of 441 inmates in North Dakota to a high of 64,737 in California.

The federal prison population rose 7.3 percent in the six months ending June 30, to 47,653. The ...

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