Incarceration rates and prison costs are hot topics among politicians these days. Alaska is not alone in seeing both rise, prompting those in charge to take a hard look at the numbers.
The incarceration rate in Alaska is 690 inmates per 100,000 residents,
according to the state Department of Corrections.
That means one in every 145 residents is an inmate at a state prison. The actual numbers were 5,082 inmates out of an Alaskan population of 740,308,
according to the 2014 Alaska Offender Profile, the annual status report on prisoners issued by ADOC.
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The total offender population was 11,090, adding to prisoners those people held by ADOC in community residential centers for minor offenses, for substance abuse and mental health treatment, and for those on electronic monitoring, along with prisoners. These other groups are not traditionally counted in incarceration rates.
Of prison inmates incarcerated in 2014, 76 percent had committed felonies, and 24 percent had committed misdemeanors.
Forty-nine percent were held in medium-security level prisons, and 32 percent were in minimum security prisons. About 16 percent were in close-security prisons. The rest were held in mixed-security facilities, community residential centers, or were awaiting placement in the proper facility.
The incarceration rate rose slightly in 2013, in part because a new prison was built in 2012 and filled almost immediately with prisoners who had been held in a private out-of-state prison,
according to the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center. Those prisoners have been counted in the other state during their time away from Alaska.
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Alaska falls near the middle of the states in its incarceration rate. Eighteen states had lower rates in 2012,
according to a study by the Prison Policy Initiative, using U.S. Census data on prison populations in states. Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate, with 1,341 inmates per 100,000 residents. Vermont had the fewest, with 254 inmates per 100,000.