Half of Slayers Serve Terms of 6 Years or Less

WASHINGTON — About half of the murderers released from a majority of state prisons in 1982 served less than six years behind bars, and the median time served by all inmates released from those institutions that year dropped to a historic low, a Justice Department study disclosed Sunday.

The figures were drawn from an analysis of the time served by 157,000 inmates in 29 states and the District of Columbia, the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reported. California was not included in the report.

Steven R. Schlesinger, director of the statistics bureau, said that even though increasing numbers of inmates are serving sentences for violent crimes, the amount of time they spend behind bars is declining.

“The median was 19 months in 1926, and the 16-month median for all offenses in 1982 was an historic low,” he said. Statistically, a median is the middle number in a series of numbers, the point at which there are as many above as below.

In 1982, 37.5% of those admitted to the reporting prisons and 35.9% of those released had been convicted of violent crimes, according to the study. They entered prison facing a 51-month median sentence, but the time they actually served after allowances for paroles and good behavior was less than one-third of that.

About 3% of the total entered prison facing life sentences, but the term served by these so-called “lifers” was five years and nine months. The study found that rapists were released from prison in 1982 after serving a median sentence of 36 months, while the median time for manslaughter was two years and four months.