NON-VIOLENT DRUG PRISONERS

If state policy-makers are serious about finding budget savings, they
might ponder a new report by the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group
that supports alternatives to incarceration. It turns out that a
significant proportion of the prison population comprises individuals
who have committed nothing more than a petty, nonviolent drug offense.

The report, based on the most recent Survey of Inmates in State
Correctional Facilities, found that three-fourths of the roughly
250,000 persons serving state prison sentences for violations of drug
laws have not been charged with a violent crime, and a fourth of those
drug "criminals" are serving prison terms for simple drug possession,
nothing more.

So much for the canard that the police never send anyone to jail who's
caught with only a couple of joints.

Another eye-opening statistic is the racial and ethnic composition of
drug inmates. Fifty-six percent of drug offenders are black and
another 23 percent are Hispanic, though nationally only 13 percent of
drug users are black and 9 percent Hispanic. This serves to confirm
the widespread belief in minority communities and among drug war
critics that the current system is, as the ACLU puts it, "the new Jim
Crow."

The Sentencing Project study offers additional ammunition to backers
of the state ballot question which would legalize possession of small
amounts of marijuana ... and, we hope, will prod Nevada policy-makers
to consider easing prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.