Data from Bureau of Prisons shows less aggressive approach to drugs offences mean fewer people are being sent to prison

The largest network of US prisons has reported its first significant drop in inmates in 30 years, according to officials, as recent de-escalations in the long-running “war on drugs” begin to show up in national incarceration statistics.



Department of Justice prisons director Charles Samuels revealed the “unprecedented” fall in federal prison numbers at a meeting of the US Sentencing Commission in Washington this week to consider across-the-board cuts to penalty guidelines for drug crime.

The commission projects that downgrading the lengths of sentences in this way will eventually allow the Bureau of Prisons – the largest corrections department in the country – to reduce its population by 6,550 inmates at the end of five years.

Latest figures, for the first half of the 2014 fiscal year – the six months from last October – show a year-on-year decrease of 3,521 inmates in the 119 federal prisons run by the bureau. Officials say the decrease appears to be more than the usual seasonal variations and already “far exceeds” any previous declines.

Though the numbers are small relative to the federal prison population of 216,000, and the 1.3m in state prisons, they suggest that shifts in prosecutions policy are already bringing an end to the long-running boom in prison numbers, particularly for more serious crimes tried in federal courts. There are more than 2 million Americans behind bars when county jails are included. While the total prison population has been declining for three years, the federal prison population had continued to grow.

“For the first time in decades we are experiencing a period of significant negative growth,” said Samuels, director of the federal bureau of prisons.

“A lot of it has to do with the charging practices and what is decided as far as the US attorney’s office and what they are going to look at. That has – in our opinion – been a large part of what is happening.”

Attorney general Eric Holder also appeared before the sentencing commission on Thursday to support its proposed cut to the tariff of penalties used to guide judges.

“This straightforward adjustment to sentencing ranges – while measured in scope – would nonetheless send a strong message about the fairness of our criminal justice system,” Holder testified. “And it would help to rein in federal prison spending while focusing limited resources on the most serious threats to public safety.”

Drug offenders account for more than half the federal prison population, and although the US accounts for 5% of the world’s population, it incarcerates nearly one quarter of the world’s prisoners. The DOJ estimate one in 28 American children currently has a parent behind bars.

“As it stands – and as this commission has recognised – certain types of cases result in too many Americans going to prison for too long, and at times for no truly good public safety reason,” added Holder.

Holder began the push to reduce prison numbers in August with a speech instructing prosecutors not to automatically trigger tough mandatory sentences when deciding how to present cases they bring before judges.

Samuels said there were also other reasons for the fall in numbers since the beginning of October, including budget shortages.

“We believe a lot of this has to do with the reduced numbers of prosecutions that have occurred with sequestration and a lot of other factors,” he said.

“We would help that with the smarter crime initiative and the comments that were made by attorney general Holder mean we will continue to see that fall.”

In a statement, the prisons bureau added: “The federal prison population has increased significantly over the past 30 years, to a total population of about 216,000 today.

“It is not unusual to see a decrease in the population in the first half of the fiscal year and an increase in the second half, resulting in a net increase for the year. However, the decrease of 3,521 we have experienced in the first half of FY 2014 far exceeds any previous decease we have experienced.”