Most Inmates (50.6%) in Prison on
June 30 were Serving for Violent Crimes
Such as Murder, Sexual Assault,
Robbery, and Arson

A primary offense is the most serious crime for which an inmate was convicted and sentenced to prison, based on the statutory degree of the crime. It is called the primary offense because many inmates have multiple offenses for which they are sentenced to prison.

• Most (50.6%) inmates in prison on June 30, 2006 had a violent primary offense, including murder, sexual assault, robbery, and arson.
  
  
• Drug offenders, those with primary offenses of sale, manufacture, purchase, trafficking or possession of drugs, comprised 20.2% of prison inmates.
  
  
• The most common categories of primary offense among inmates on June 30, 2006 were the sale, purchase or manufacture of drugs (10.6%), robbery with a weapon (7.9%), and burglary of a dwelling (6.9%).
  
  
• For inmates with a primary offense of murder or manslaughter, the average sentence length was 35.9 years, and their average age at offense was 27.8 years. (Sentences of life, death and more than 50 years were counted as 50 years for these calculation purposes.)
  
  
• The average sentence length for other primary offense groups were: 21.7 years for sexual offenses, 19.9 years for robbery, and 12.2 years for burglary.
  
  
• For prison inmates, robbery is the offense type with the youngest average age at offense: 26.4 years.

Comparing Primary Offense Type For Inmates in Prison on June 30, 1996 and 2006