MANY INMATES NONVIOLENT

WASHINGTON -- Most drug offenders in state prisons are black males with no
history of violence or high-level drug dealing, says a group that favors
alternatives to prison.

In a report released Thursday, the Sentencing Project says more than half of
the inmates -- 58 percent, or 124,885 people -- are nonviolent offenders.
The study authors say they should be in treatment.

Based largely on a 1997 federal study, issued every five years, the study
found that four out of five drug offenders in state prisons are minorities
- -- more than three times the rate of minority drug use in society.

Todd Gaziano, a Heritage Foundation criminal justice scholar, criticized the
Sentencing Project study for using a survey that asks inmates to describe
their own criminal activity.

The full report can be found at http://www.sentencingproject.org .