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US Prisons and Jails Filled with Violent Offenders, Not Drug Offenders

July 28, 2003 – Yesterday the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released its annual July report, “Prisoners in 2002.” This report follows one that BJS issues every June, which counts the number of prisoners in federal, state, and local prisons and jails. The July reports tell why people are incarcerated.

As with the release of previous BJS reports, we expect to see headlines across the nation saying something like “U.S. Prisons Filled with Drug Offenders.” Stories will quote advocacy groups who will reinforce the headlines and contend that we could greatly reduce prison costs by legalizing drugs.

The BJS Report says, “ Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constituted the largest group of Federal inmates (55%) in 2001. . .” (p. 11) So what’s wrong with the headlines we expect to see?

The numbers explain the story:

Reason for Incarceration	Inmates in Federal Prisons	Inmates in State Prisons
Total Offenders	142,766	1,208,700
Drug Offenders	78,501	246,100
Percent of Total	55%	20%

Out of 1,351,466 inmates in federal and state prisons, 324,601, or 24 percent, are drug offenders. Clearly, to tell the whole story, state prisons – where the vast number of people are incarcerated – must be included. Why are they there?

“Overall, the largest growth in State inmates between 1995 and 2001 was among violent offenders. From 1995 to 2001, the number of violent offenders grew 130,800, while the number of drug offenders grew 30,600. As a percentage of the total growth, violent offenders accounted for 63% of the growth; drug offenders 15%; property offenders 2%; and public-order offenders 20%.” (p. 10)

Federal prisons held a total of 88,658 inmates in 1995 and 142,766 in 2001. Of those, 52,782 were drug offenders in 1995 and 78,501 were drug offenders in 2001, a substantial increase. Even so, the percent of drug offenders in federal prisons has declined since 1995. The full sentence we began with is:

Finally, this report offers no breakdown of what kinds of drug offenses inmates committed. Are they in prison because they used drugs? Sold drugs? In what quantities? Nor does it provide information about what percent of the other categories of offenders (violent, property, and public-order offenders) were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they committed their crimes. Such information would help the public and policy-makers reach for effective solutions to a difficult problem that affects a large number of citizens.

National Families in Action encourages the press to track down and accurately report all these data – from the statisticians who collect them rather than the advocacy groups who often distort them.

Reference
A press release announcing the release of this report and providing a URL where it may be downloaded can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p02.htm.

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