IT'S A WASTE TO PUT DRUG OFFENDERS IN PRISON

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 one out of four American prisoners is serving time for a
nonviolent drug crime. Politicians say we need to build prisons to reduce
violent crime. But for the last 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 11-fold.

The costs of incarcerating 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 youth imprisoned for drug offenses doubled, while the number of black
youth imprisoned for the same reasons increased six times.

By choosing to use prison as our principal solution for drug addiction, we
have created a situation where at least one in three young black men is
under some form of criminal justice control (prison, jail, parole or
probation).

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.
According to research by the Rand Corp., spending money to provide treatment
for heavy cocaine users would reduce drug consumption by nearly four times
as much as spending the same amount on law enforcement.

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.