IMPRISONING DRUG ADDICTS WASTES TAXPAYERS' MONEY

The United States is imprisoning drug offenders at an alarming rate. The
number of people serving time in American prisons and jails for nonviolent
drug crimes (458,131) is almost equal to the total number of Americans who
were behind bars in 1980 (474,368), according to a recent study by the
Justice Policy Institute.

Today, nearly 1 in 4 American prisoners is serving time for a nonviolent
drug crime. Politicians say we need to build prisons to reduce violent
crime. But for the past decade, the number of people entering state prisons
for drug offenses has surpassed the number entering for violent crimes.

During that time, the number of people entering prison for a violent crime
doubled, but the number of people entering prison for nonviolent crimes
tripled. The number imprisoned for drug offenses increased elevenfold.

The costs of incarcerating so many drug prisoners are both morally and
financially steep. First, these incarceration policies discriminate against
minorities. Even though surveys continue to show similar drug-use rates for
whites and blacks, our analysis found that from 1986 to 1996, the number of
white youths imprisoned for drug offenses doubled, while the number of
black youths imprisoned for the same reasons increased six times.

The war on drugs is expensive, too. Our study estimates that this country
spends $9 billion incarcerating drug offenders each year. Sending the same
people to outpatient drug-treatment programs would cost a third as much.

Americans have the right to be safe from violent criminals. But we should
demand that our government pursue fiscally prudent and humane policies to
limit drug addiction. Locking up nonviolent drug offenders is no solution.