Prisoners of the United States Government

• In Event: Convict Criminology 3: New Research Papers

Abstract

Who are these men and women doing time in federal prisons? As of December 2011, the FBOP inmate population totaled approximately 216,000, with over 93 percent male, and 11 percent doing time in high-security prisons. The population is approximately 60 percent white, 40 percent black, and 35 percent Hispanic (also counted as white or black), with an average age of 37 years old (FBOP, 2011).
As prisoners of the U. S. Government, federal convicts enjoy a higher status than state prisoners in the criminal world. This status is derived in part from the fact that they can say they did time in some famous prisons, like USP Leavenworth (Richards, 2005b) or USP Marion (Richards, 2005a, 2008), with professional criminals. In comparison, while there are many state prisons with historical reputations, for example Attica (NY) or San Quentin (CA), most state prisoners do time in institutions with little name recognition beyond the local area.

Author

• Stephen C. Richards, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh