Pennsylvania's state prison population increased by 5.8 percent between June 2001 and June 2002, according to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Justice. State prisons nationwide have increased by about 1 percent, which has pushed the U.S. prison population to over 2 million for the first time.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy told Congress Wednesday that too many people are behind bars in America and prison terms are often too long.

"Two million people in prison is just unacceptable,'' Kennedy said during a hearing on the Supreme Court's budget.

Locally, the rise in the number of prisoners has not been as large. State Correctional Institution at Rockview, located in Bellefonte, has reported an increase of 0.7 percent in the past year, said Jeff Rackovan, Rockview spokesman.

The biggest increases have occurred at sites such as the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, a former hospital in Somerset, which has been operational for only two years, Rackovan said. Laurel Highlands handles only medical need and geriatric prisoners, who reside in cells but have medical facilities on site, Rackovan said.

"With more construction, they've been more sufficient to handle more prisoners, and their population has gone up about 65 percent," Rackovan said.

Large increases have also been seen at the Boot Camp at Quehanna located in Clearfield County. With a new housing unit, its population has risen by 60 or 70 inmates, Rackovan said.

"At Rockview in the last year, we've gone up about 10 inmates. Our biggest increase has been with parole violators. If you take those away, our population has changed a few, but nothing that drastic," Rackovan said. "They haven't committed a new crime, but they violate parole, then they get six months to a year to pay the piper for their violation."

Eric Silver, associate professor of sociology and crime, law and justice, said these violators may be committing new crimes, but are simply categorized as parole violations.

"It's a little tricky to just call them parole violators," Silver said.

Different than a new arrest, a parole violation is called a technical violation, which means no new trial or plea-bargaining, Silver said.

"It's easier to get someone back into prison [through parole violations] there's no attempt to match a punishment for the new arrest, and the apparatus of justice is not brought to bear as in the original arrest," Silver said.

Tom Young, Centre County Probation and Parole Department director, said parole violators are a piece of the puzzle behind the increase of prisoners.

"We have to be innovative and screen the people we choose to incarcerate for parole violations. Each case is looked at very closely by the court. Protecting the community is our first priority and finding the best way to prevent the offenders from re-offending," Young said.

Individuals on parole are subject to surveillance and drug testing, which often leads to their violations.

Drug-related crimes, along with parole violations, are the areas with the largest increases, Silver said.

"We have a lot of programs in place to lead the horse to water, so to speak, so they don't re-offend and find themselves back in jail," Young said.

According to statistics from the FBI, the U.S. violent crime rate has fallen 33.4 percent from 1992 to 2001.

"The crime rate has gone down, so for some people it may mean we are incarcerating more people as a country, state and county, but it's doing some good. The goal of this system is to reduce crime," Young said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.