Occupancy Rates in Prison Systems

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One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Think of a bird in a very small cage. The cage is just big enough that the bird can stay alive but not necessarily healthy. Now, as a matter of policy, let's jam another bird into the cage...and sometimes two or three or four. Essentially, that's what is happening to thousands of prisoners in the U.S. and throughout the world.

Occupancy is a legal term and an occupancy rate is determined by the building's designed capacity. Therefore, a prison designed for a population of 1,000 that is housing 2,000 has a 200% occupancy rate. California's rate for 2006 was 199.2%.

Using data visualization by Swivel.com, we can focus on the issue of prison occupancy in California (males and females), in the 50 largest jail jurisdictions in the U.S., and throughout the world.

Examples of prison occupancy rates worldwide include Grenada's 375%, Zambia's 331% and Bangladesh's 316%. U.S. data covers California and U.S. Jail Jurisdictions. For 2006, California's Avenal State Prison had 260% and Denver County, CO jail jurisdiction had 143%.


Thanks to the International Centre for Prison Studies of King’s College London who maintains the excellent online World Prison Brief and for data provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Other valuable resources:

• Penal Reform International (PRI)
• PEW Research Center
• Human Rights Watch
  
  

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