By Drew Kann
April 21, 2019
Source: CNN
Photo / Image Source: Unsplash,
The ‘war on drugs’ isn’t solely to blame for mass incarceration.
Nearly half of all inmates in federal prisons are held on drug charges, but drug offenders make up a smaller proportion of the population in state prisons and jails.
CNN
Some have said that the “war on drugs” is responsible for America’s massive prison and jail populations.
And while this rings true in many federal prisons – where nearly half of all inmates are locked up for drug charges, often serving lengthy sentences – it’s a different story in state prisons and local jails.
In these facilities, where the vast majority of incarcerated people are housed, Prison Policy Initiative says those held for drug offenses are a much smaller proportion of the overall population.
But this still oversimplifies the relationship between drugs and mass incarceration.
For one, there is huge variation from state-to-state in how drug policies are enforced, according to a Pew analysis. States like Louisiana and Oklahoma, for instance, lock up drug offenders at rates far exceeding most others.
Though drugs may not be the primary reason most people are in state and local prisons, law enforcement agencies around the country are still making drug arrests in huge numbers.
In 2016, drug arrests actually increased about 10% from the previous year to more than 1.25 million, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.
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