Crime & Safety
Comparing the growth in Illinois' prison population to total population
There were only four years in which the population of the state grew at a faster rate than the prison population: 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2011.
Excerpt from Reboot Illinois:
Prison population growth has been a big topic of conversation nation-wide. But where does Illinois stand in terms of how many people are housed in our state prisons? How is that number related to Illinois’ population as a total? And how have both of those numbers changed over time?
The U.S. Census Bureau in 1990 counted 11.45 million people in Illinois, 27,500 of whom were incarcerated in state prisons. By 2014, Illinois’ population had grown to 12.88 million and the prison population had grown to about 48,000, according to census and Illinois Department of Corrections figures. That’s a 12.5 percent growth rate for the state population and a 75 percent growth rate for the prison population...
Find out what's happening in Huntleyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Check out these charts that show the changes in both populations over this time period.