State's Prison Population Lowest in 16 Years

A report released by Connecticut shows the state's prison population reached a 16-year low at the end of 2014.

Criminal justice officials say they expect the number of inmates to drop even more over the coming year.

The report issued on Wednesday says there were 16,167 inmates in the system on Jan. 1, down from 16,594 a year ago.

Mike Lawlor, the governor's undersecretary for criminal justice policy, says the prison population is declining because fewer people are committing crimes.

Lawlor said there are actually fewer inmates being released from prison, but the overall populating is shrinking because so many fewer people are being arrested and put behind bars.

The last time the year-end numbers were lower was in January 1999 where there were 16,104 inmates in the system.