PRISONS LESS CROWDED BECAUSE OF PROPOSITION 36

To the editor

The just-released U.S. Justice Department figures on numbers of prison and
jail inmates are a reminder of how California has benefited from its sane
and sensible marijuana laws.

After years of rising prison populations in California and nationwide, the
state has now reversed the trend, showing a 0.3 percent decline in the
state's prison population between June 2000 and June 2001. Surely much of
the credit for this goes to the combined effects of Prop. 36, which
substituted treatment for imprisonment for many nonviolent drug offenders,
and California's long-standing decisions to decriminalize marijuana
possession and legalize medical use of marijuana.

Nationwide, incarceration rates for the same period rose 1.1 percent -- with
the inevitable increased expenses involved in running prisons and parole
systems clogged with nonviolent individuals.

Prisons should be for people who are violent and dangerous. California has
begun to recognize this, and its citizens have benefited.

Bruce Mirken, Director of Communications, Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C.