Drug offenders sdmitted to prison Essay

The single greatest force behind the growth of the U. S. prison system since the mid-1980s has been the subject area war on medicines. 45 Spearheaded by major federal medicine policy initiatives that significantly increased penalties for medicine offenses and markedly increased federal pecuniary resource for posit anti- dose efforts, federal and state measures to combat doses have concent dictated on criminal law enforcement rather than prevention and treatment.46 An estimated 400,000 people almost maven-quarter of the derive incarcerated population in the U. S. are confined in local jails and state and federal prisons on drug charges. 47 Citing the extraordinary number of drug offenders in U. S. prisons, General Barry McCaffrey, has decried the creation of what he termed a drug gulag. 48 Policies adopted to battle the use and sale of drugs have led to marked increases in suffer grade, in the likelihood of going to prison, and in the length of sentences for drug offender s. mingled with 1980 and 1997, the number of annual drug arrests tripled to a high of 1,584,000. 49 The rate of drug arrests per 100,000 residents rose from 288 to 661.50 The rate of commitment to state prison per drug arrest quintupled between 1980 and 1990, rising from 19 prison commitments per 1,000 arrests to 103 per 1,000. 51 The estimated time served by drug offenders in state prisons increased a full year between 1987 and 1996 federal drug sentences doubled. 52 As of 1997, there were an estimated 285,009 men and women in state and federal prisons on drug charges, a twelvefold increase since 1980. 53 Relative to the adult population, the rate of incarceration of drug offenders hasincreased almost tenfold, rising from little than 15 inmates per 100,000 adults to 148 per 100,000.54 In 1980, drug offenders comprised only six theatrical role of state prison populations. By 1998, they constituted 21 percent. In federal prisons, drug offenders now comprise 59 percent of all inma tes, whereas they represented only a quarter of federal inmates in 1980. 55 Drug Offenders Admitted to Prison Between 1980 and 1998, the number of new entryways of drug offenders to state and federal prison soared, exceeding 1. 5 million in total (Figure 5). In recent years, nearly one hundred thousand drug offenders have been admitted to prison annually. Nationwide, 31 percent of all admissions to state prison in 1996 were drug offenders.Among the states, the proportion of drug offenders wide-ranging between a low of 10 percent in Maine to a high of 46. 6 percent in New Jersey and 44. 7 percent in New York (Figure 6). In three quarters of the states, much than one in five persons sent to prison was convicted of a drug offense. In contrast, tempestuous offenders accounted nationwide for only 26. 8 percent of new state prison admissions. Rate of Admission of Drug Offenders There is a remarkable range in the extent to which states subject their populations to incarceration on drug charges (Table 8).The rates of admission of drug offenders to prison per 100,000 adult residents vary from a low of 6 per 100,000 in Maine to a high of 91 in California. The ten states that have the highest rates of drug offender admissions relative to population are California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. Nationwide, drug offenders are sent to prison at a rate, relative to population, that is 13 percent higher than the rate for violent offenders (Table 9).In one half of the states coverage to NCRP, the admission rates for drug offenders exceed those for persons convicted of violent crimes. Six states Arkansas, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia send drug offenders to prison at rates that range from 50 to 100 percent higher than the rates for violent offenders. Drug Offending and Prison Admissions The broad range in admission rates for drug offenders crossways the country cannot be ascr ibed simply to variations in drug use and sales in various states.Table 10, covering twenty six states, presents federal estimates of the percentage of the population over 12 in those states who were current illicit drug users in 1991-1993. 56 Although some drug users may cross state lines to leveraging drugs, we assume that relative rates of drug use in each state also roughly reflect relative amounts of drug sale activity. compare drug use rates with calculations of the rate relative to population at which drug offenders in those states were sent to prison reveals the lack of a consistent correlation coefficient between drug offending and the imprisonment of drug offenders.First, the percentage of the population that used drugs varied among states from 4. 1 to 8. 2 percent, compared to a range in drug offender admission rates that extended from 8 to 91. Second, the states with higher rates of drug use were not necessarily the states with higher drug offender admission rates. Or egon, for example, had the third highest percentage of drug use, yet it had one of the lowest rates of drug admissions. In contrast, California had both the highest rate of drug use and the highest rate of drug offender admissions.Third, lower drug use did not necessarily correlate with low drug offender admissions rates. The percentage of Illinois population that used drugs was sooner low, yet the statehad the second highest rate of drug offender admissions. Similarly, Louisiana had a relatively low rate of drug use yet it had one of the highest rates of drug admissions. Obviously, no definitive conclusions can be drawn from a comparison of these two rather crude sets of figures.Nevertheless, the data suggest the explanation for the different rates at which people are sent to prison for drug offenses must lie in different penal policies and priorities among the states, including different law enforcement resources and strategies, prosecutorial charging preferences, and sentencing l aws, as well as structural and demographic factors, e. g. , degrees of urbanization, rather than rates of drug offending. Drugs Involved In Offense The NCRP data does not permit reliable calculations about the extent to which different hard drugs (e. g. , cocaine, amphetamines, heroin) were involved in drug offenses.The data is somewhat better with regard to the identification of marijuana offenses, which were identified as the drug involved in 4. 3 percent of all drug admissions. 57 In nine states marijuana offenses accounted for more than ten percent of drug admissions aluminum (16. 09), Iowa (17. 22), Kentucky (12. 4), Mississippi (14. 50), New Hampshire (28. 83), North Dakota (43. 02), South Carolina (11. 25), South Dakota (18. 3), and West Virginia (20. 63) (Table 11). Type of Drug Conduct People are sent to prison for both drug possession and sales-related conduct.In 1996, the simple possession of drugs (excluding possession with intent to sell) was the most serious conviction offense for 28 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prison (Table 12). Fifty-six percent of drug offender admissions were for drug sales, and the rest for other drug-related offenses (e. g. , fraudulent prescriptions and unlawful possession of syringes). In nine states (Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Virginia) more than 50 percent of drug offenders sent to prison were convicted of simple possession.