How many inmates in federal prisons?
HOELTER: Federal prisons now have about 160,000 inmates. When we started practicing in federal court in 1978, there were less than 25,000 prisoners in the federal system. CCR: What percentage of the federal prison population is white collar? HOELTER: About 20 percent. CCR: What percentage of the state prison population is white collar? HOELTER: Probably one percent. The federal system historically had been for white collar criminals. That was true until the drug war hit big in the early 1990s. Now, about 60 percent of the inmates in federal prisons are drug offenders. CCR: It used to be that the majority of the prisoners in federal prisons were white collar? HOELTER: Yes. Absolutely. That was the case 15 years ago. CCR: The white collar criminals who are getting out are advocating, as you do, for the deinstitutionalization, the emptying of prisons of non-violent offenders. We interviewed R. Foster Winans, the former Wall Street Journal reporter who did time for insider trading. He says
