prison
dIn the United States, prison and jail overcrowding had hit record proportions by the mid-1980s. Between 1977 and 1985, the total growth in state and federal prison population had increased by 68%; over 10,000 state prisoners were being incarcerated in local jails due to prison crowding (Skovron, Scott, & Cullen, 1988). ... Although prison admissions were expected to level off by 1990, overall prison populations were still predicted to continue to grow throughout the 1980s and 1990s, largely as a result of sentencing and policy changes which increased the time served by prisoners.