John Scalia, Bureau of Justice Statistics

December 1, 2001    NCJ 189430

Presents the number of prisoner petitions filed by Federal and State inmates in U.S. district courts during 2000. The report estimates the impact of the Prison Litigation Reform Act and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act on the number of prisoner petitions. It also includes trends in the number of prisoner petitions from 1980 through 2000.

Highlights:

• During 2000, 58,257 prisoner petitions were filed in U.S.district Courts -- 80% by State prison inmates and 20% by Federal inmates.
• The 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act appears to have resulted in a decrease in the number of civil rights petitions filed by State and Federal prison inmates.
• The 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act appears to have resulted in an increase in the number of habeas corpus petitions filed by State prison inmates.

Part of the Prisoners Series

Full report (PDF 208K)
ASCII file (24K)
Spreadsheet (Zip format 60K)
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