Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate

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The majority of all prisoners in the USA (federal, state, local jails) are incarcerated due to the drug war.

Drug offenses, drug-related crimes (such as theft to get money for drugs), drug trade crimes, drug-related parole violations, etc..

True cost of drugs: More than half of inmates currently in U.S. federal prisons were convicted of narcotics offences. June 12, 2011. Daily Mail. The article discusses state prisons, too. Also, it discusses many aspects of drug-related crimes. For example; "The second main area is economic-related crimes where an individual commits a crime to fund a drug habit. These include theft and prostitution."

Dissenting Opinions of Judges, Federal Drug Sentencing, Mandatory Minimum Sentences. A list of many articles by judges. At November Coalition.

Jimmie Carter: Call Off the Global Drug War. In New York Times: "Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out that, in 1980, 10 percent of his state’s budget went to higher education and 3 percent to prisons; in 2010, almost 11 percent went to prisons and only 7.5 percent to higher education. Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help to bring about a reform of America’s drug policies." -- June 16, 2011 article.

Length of sentences causes the huge U.S. incarceration rate
Return to top. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html American Exception. Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations']. April 22, 2008. New York Times. Page 1, Section A, Front Page. Archive. From the article (emphasis added):


 * Still, it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy. Indeed, the mere number of sentences imposed here would not place the United States at the top of the incarceration lists. If lists were compiled based on annual admissions to prison per capita, several European countries would outpace the United States. But American prison stays are much longer, so the total incarceration rate is higher. ...  "Rises and falls in Canada's crime rate have closely paralleled America's for 40 years," Mr. Tonry wrote last year. "But its  imprisonment rate has remained stable." 

Incarceration Nation: "On June 30, 2006, an estimated 4.8% of black men were in prison or jail, compared to 1.9% of Hispanic men and 0.7% of white men. More than 11% of black males age 25 to 34 were incarcerated. Black women were incarcerated in prison or jail at nearly 4 times the rate of white women and more than twice the rate of Hispanic women." - Source: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). LEAP - Matthew Fogg (former Chief Deputy US Federal Marshal): "Drug prohibition helps the US maintain a racial apartheid prison industrial complex."
 * Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006 (page 1 of the PDF file). United States Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste. NORML Blog. By: Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator.

Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

2003. Federal Judge Quits, Calls Judicial System Unjust. Associated Press (AP) story, National Public Radio interview, and Judge John S. Martin's statement. "The result, he said, is a slew of lengthy prison sentences for low-level drug dealers 'who society failed at every step.' ... While many judges have criticized sentencing guidelines, it is unusual for a judge to publicly cite the frustrations of the job in stepping down." -June 25 2003 AP story. See also: Let Judges Do Their Jobs. By Hon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Martin_Jr. John S. Martin Jr.].

Mandatory Minimum sentences or "truth in sentencing"
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 * See also: The National Rifle Association and "truth in sentencing".

See Mandatory sentencing. See also this page. Mandatory Minimum sentencing is oftentimes used for non-violent crimes such as drug possession. It is a modern-day way to create concentration camps for drug-using "undesirables." Sentences that usually do not allow parole until at least around 80% of the sentence served. Federal laws, and most states, have mandatory minimums. The majority of U.S. prisoners are in due to the drug war in some way or another.

See War on Drugs, and  Sentencing Reform Act.

Majority of inmates are in due to U.S. drug war
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Republican evil, Democrat complicity, corporatist control: The Drug-War Industrial Complex.
 * Drug War Invented by Nixon to Extend His Power. By Fintan O'Toole. Aug. 13, 1999. Irish Times.

In June 1971 Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs."

"Nearly one in four persons (23.7%) imprisoned in the United States is currently imprisoned for a drug offense. The number of persons behind bars for  drug offenses (458,131) is roughly the same as the entire prison and jail population in 1980 (474,368)." -- From this July 2000 report: Poor Prescription: The Costs of Imprisoning Drug Offenders in the United States. See also:.

Number and percentage of prisoners whose primary and/or most serious crime was a drug offense: 8% in 1980. 23% in 1998. Based on federal estimates of state and federal drug prisoners. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. Chart from 1980 on.

Crimes concerning money for drugs
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"The FBI has reported that almost one-third of people convicted of robbery and burglary, and more than one-quarter of people convicted of larceny, committed their crimes to get money for drugs. Moreover, 6.5 percent of the murders in the United States in 1990 occurred in narcotics-related circumstances" -- Rethinking America's wasteful war on illicit drugs. By Jerry V. Wilson (former chief of police for the District of Columbia). Jan. 18, 1994. Washington Post.

The Nov. 2, 1995 Chicago Tribune reported: "The latest Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS] survey of U.S. prison inmates in 1991 found that  27 percent of robbers admitted they committed crimes to buy drugs; 30 percent of burglars said so, and 5 percent of convicted murderers did." -- See Table 3 in the BJS report Fact Sheet: Drug-Related Crime. September 1994, NCJ–149286.

"According to the 1991 joint survey of Federal and State prison inmates, an estimated 17 percent of State prisoners and 10 percent of Federal prisoners reported committing their offense to get money to buy drugs; of those incarcerated for robbery, 27 percent of State prisoners and 27 percent of Federal prisoners admitted committing their offense to get money to buy drugs (see table 3). In 1997, 19 percent of State prisoners and 16 percent of Federal inmates said that they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs. These numbers represent a slight increase from the 1991 figures." http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/crime/index.html#table3

"In 1988, just over half of the murders in the city [New York City] were 'drug-related.' But once the researchers examined the circumstances of the murders, they discovered that the clear majority, 74 percent,  were results of the drug trade, not drug use (14 percent) or the need to get money for drugs (4 percent)." -- July 15, 1999. Washington Post. Op-ed from the Drug Policy Foundation. Emphasis added. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n731.a13.html

"The percentage of homicides thought to be drug-related reflects both the frequency of such crimes as well as how the relationship is specified. 'What proportion of homicides is drug-related?' This simple question is difficult to answer. The FBI's definition is specific but limited. Cities or police departments may have broader but inconsistent definitions. For offenses not as reliably reported or as thoroughly investigated as homicides, the question is even more difficult because complete information is not systematically available at the national level for any definition of 'drug-related.' " See the chart below. http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/crime/index.html#whystatistics

Parole violations and drugs
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*Parole violations and drugs. 16.1% is the percentage of parole violators returned to state prisons in 1997 for drug related violations'; for failing drug tests, possession of drugs, failing to report for drug testing, failing to report for alcohol or drug treatment. Info is from Table 21 of this report:
 * Trends in State Parole, 1990-2000. NCJ 184735. October 2001. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. See Table 21.

See chart.

World incarceration rates
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