DRUG CONVICTIONS INCREASING PRISON POPULATION

Drug convictions are responsible for more inmates' presence in Arkansas
Department of Correction system than any other type of crime, records show.
Of the nearly 12,000 inmates housed in state prisons, 18.9 percent -- more
than 2,250 prisoners -- are serving time for drug-related offenses, prison
officials said.

"Let's face it: Substance abuse is a big problem, and it's a big catalyst
for criminal activity," said Correction Department spokesman Dina Tyler.

The doubling of drug arrests around the state over the last few years has
led to an ever-climbing population in Arkansas prisons. Tyler said the
latest figure, 11,917, is a new record.

Jeff Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Arkansas
at Little Rock, said the volume of drug cases and convictions is clogging
county jails and the state prisons. For felony marijuana convictions, he
said, judges are "sending them to prison for possession in herds."

In the last 10 years, 823 people have been sentenced to an average of four
years and three months in prison for having more than 10 pounds of
marijuana when they were arrested, according to Arkansas Administrative
Office of the Courts sentencing information.

In prison, Tyler said, 3,000 inmates a year go through drug treatment
programs, varying from 30 days to nine months long. She said prison
officials know that 38 percent of inmates will re-offend within three
years, so treatment is a chance to keep people out of prison.

"Our goal is we don't want to see them again," Tyler said. "They don't want
to see us and we don't want to see them. We want them to go out and make it."

But the vast majority of drug arrests are for misdemeanor possession.

John Wesley Hall, a criminal defense attorney in Little Rock and a legal
adviser for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,
said misdemeanor offenders in many counties aren't taken to jail, but given
a citation to appear in court. First-time offenders are often given
probation, Hall said, and their record is cleared if they complete a
program dictated by the judge.

"Small possession cases, nobody gets bent out of shape about," Hall said.

At the Pulaski County jail, the state's busiest and most chronically
overfilled, marijuana offenders are often released early to ease overcrowding.

"They don't want them there in the first place," Hall said. "It's more
trouble than it's worth. They only keep them because they have to."

Police report that many of their marijuana arrests are offshoots of a
larger drug raid. For instance, Benton County sheriff's spokesman Tom
Brewster said that 70 percent to 80 percent of the inmates in that county's
jail are confined because of methamphetamine, either directly or because
they stole to get more of the drug.

Hall said most marijuana charges that arise from crack house raids and
methamphetamine lab busts are small change compared to the target drug.

"It's a tag-along misdemeanor at that point," Hall said.

"The marijuana charge is nothing at that point."