U.S. Housing More Foreign Prisoners

The number of foreign prisoners in U.S. federal prisons quadrupled between 1984 and 1994, the Justice Department said. The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics said the number of noncitizens incarcerated in federal prisons increased from 4,088 in 1984 to 18,929 in 1994, the latest year for which data were available. On a percentage basis, noncitizens made up 13% of the 31,000 federal prisoners in 1984, compared with 22% of the 87,000 prisoners in 1994. The report said most of the foreign prisoners were convicted of drug or immigration offenses. Only 1.4% were prosecuted for violent crimes such as murder, rape or robbery, compared with 8.5% of the U.S. prisoners.