NCJ Number
141717
Journal
Alaska Justice Forum Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1992) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1992
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This issue of Alaska Justice Forum presents statistics on trends in the State's correctional population between 1980 and 1992, reports on persons jailed for driving under the influence, and examines Uniform Crime Reporting figures for the first half of 1992.
Abstract
Today, the prison population constitutes only 40 percent of the total number of offenders under the control of the Alaska Department of Corrections; the remainder are offenders on probation and parole as well as residents of community corrections centers. There have been enormous increases in the numbers of offenders in all these categories during the reporting period. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report summarized here examines the characteristics of arrested or convicted persons who were confined in local jails in 1989 under charges of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Nearly 90 percent had a previous conviction for a DWI offense. Most offenders had been drinking beer; half of the convicted offenders had consumed the equivalent of 12 bottles of beer prior to their arrest for DWI. About 80 percent of all inmates in jail for DWI who admitted to being alcoholics had been involved in an alcohol treatment program at some time. Statistics compiled by the Federal Uniform Crime Reporting Program for the first half of 1992 showed that violent crime increased 3 percent and property offenses decreased 3 percent when compared to the same period in 1991. Total crime decreased by 2 percent, the first decline since 1984.