Exhibit No. 15, a line graph in thousands for 1939 to 1948 with two lines, "Prisoners present at end of year" and "Prisoners received from court", and printed text below headed "Prisoners in State and Federal Prisons and Reformatories". — Open the full imageJPG, 1024 × 1712 px, 0.2 MB

Kefauver Part 2, Exhibit 15: Bureau of Prisons graph of prisoners in state and federal prisons, 1939-1948

A Bureau of Prisons line graph of prisoners present at year end and prisoners received from court in state and federal prisons and reformatories, 1939 to 1948, filed by Director James V. Bennett.

Date: 1950-06-23
Kind: hearing
Source: Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings (Boston Public Library copy)
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Docket: Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Hearings before the Special Committee, 81st Cong., Part 2: Federal Communications Commission, United States Post Office, Bureau of Prisons, United States Treasury, and other witnesses
Rights: A work of the United States Congress, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. The scan is of a GPO printing; Internet Archive marks it not in copyright.

Exhibit No. 15 is printed at page 258 of Part 2. James V. Bennett, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, filed it as “a statement showing the number of prisoners at the end of each year in both State and Federal prisons” (printed page 58). The session headed on the scan is June 23, 1950. The contents describe it as a “Graph and chart furnished by James V. Bennett, showing prisoners in State and Federal prisons and reformatories, for the United States: 1939 to 1948.”

The graph, labelled “Chart 1,” plots in thousands two lines from 1939 to 1948: “Prisoners present at end of year” and “Prisoners received from court.” The release printed below it states that at the end of 1948 there were 157,470 prisoners in state and federal prisons and reformatories, “according to figures released today by James V. Bennett.”

This is a hearing exhibit and a work of a federal agency. It names no person other than the director who released it.

itemKefauver Committee hearings, Part 2: Federal agencies and other witnesses (1950)Printed hearings of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Part 2, Federal agencies and other witnesses: sessions in Washington, June to August 1950.

itemKefauver Part 2, Exhibit 13: Bureau of Prisons chart, "Percentage of Repeaters," fiscal year 1949A Bureau of Prisons bar chart of the share of first offenders and repeaters among federal prisoners committed for more than a year in fiscal 1949, by offense, put in the record by Director James V. Bennett.