Jefferson City, MO – Missouri's prison population has reached an all-time high.
The Department of Corrections says its number of inmates has risen over the past year, after declining or holding steady for the previous few years.
At the end of September, the department had 30,720 inmates. That topped the previous high mark of 30,654 set in October 2005.
Department director George Lombardi says the increase is a result of new people being sentenced to prison, not because of probation revocations for prior offenders. Lombardi says he does not know whether more people are committing crimes, whether more people simply are being convicted or whether courts are clearing out a backlog of cases.