MORE DRUG, JAIL FACTS

A few weeks back, I wrote a column offering some statistics on drug
offenders in Minnesota prisons. Several readers responded with useful
questions, to which I've found possible answers.

I noted that those who favor drug decriminalization often seem to leave the
impression that prisons are today filled with small-time drug offenders. I
suggested that whatever one thinks of the merits of drug legalization,
facts on this issue might come in handy. According to the Minnesota
Corrections Department, some 15 percent of state prison inmates are in for
drug crimes, and less than half of those for ``possession'' crimes.

Other states, I noted, incarcerate higher percentages of drug offenders,
while federal prisons have much higher rates. But federal prisons house a
small proportion of the nation's inmates. And everywhere, possession crimes
account for a small percentage of drug inmates.

Several readers who seemed to think I was leaving a misleading impression
theorized that it is really in local jails, not state prisons, that drug
users predominate. Another reader wondered how many inmates commit their
crimes to get money for drugs -- and are in that sense victims of harsh
drug laws that make drugs expensive.

A U.S. Department of Justice study of jail inmates nationwide (in 1996)
addresses these issues. It reports that 22 percent of jail inmates are drug
offenders, about half of whom are there for possession crimes. It also
indicates that 15.8 percent of jail inmates say they committed their crime
to get money for drugs.

I don't know whether these jail statistics support the impression my
questioners were looking for. Percentages aside, lots of people are behind
bars for drug crimes in America, and those who favor more treatment and
less incarceration for drugs have a case to make.

Hopefully, facts will illuminate the needed debate.