The Trump Administration isn’t counting how many people die in its custody, but the Legislative Research Council can tell you how many folks were living behind bars in October… and it’s fewer than we expected!
The Pen had more inmates in October than it did last October and more than the 2018 Legislature expected it would. But the rest of our state correctional facilities saw fewer people check in, or more check out, or both, than we budgeted for. On the whole, in October, we had just seven more people in the pokey than last year and 57 fewer than planned.
The number of men in state custody dropped 1.4%, but felonious female confinees increased 9.7%. According to the LRC, drug offenders make up 27% of the male inmate population and 64% of the female inmate population. Violent criminals make up 48% of the male inmates and 13% of the females behind bars.
Do more SD femmes use drugs or are they targeted more often?
I’d say neither, Mike. There 899 male drug offenders in the system and only 364 female drug offenders. The percentages here are percentages of the inmate population. Women just commit other crimes at such lower rates than men that even the fewer numbers of ladies breaking drug laws end up constituting a larger percentage of the femal einmate population.