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Drugs and the Man

Published: July 4, 2006 -- The New York Times

To the Editor:

The Rockefeller drug law reforms already enacted provide important relief from some of the harshest sentencing laws in the country ("Prosecutor Questions Drug Law Reforms," news article, June 27).

But although 70 to 80 percent of those charged in the criminal justice system have a drug or alcohol problem, these reforms did not enable even one additional addicted person to be sent to treatment instead of prison.

A study conducted by the Legal Action Center found that thousands of people who have never been convicted of any violent offense are incarcerated on drug charges every year, some on first offenses, some on second. Many are addicted and committed low-level offenses. Sending them to treatment instead would save lives and, according to another of our studies, $160 million a year.

We hope that the next round of drug law reform will enable judges and prosecutors to send more nonviolent addicted individuals to treatment instead of prison.

Anita Marton
Vice President
Legal Action Center
New York, June 29, 2006
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The United States imprisons the largest proportion of its population of any country in history. About 25% of the the world’s prisoners are in the U.S. corrections system, due in large part to the war on drugs, which has resulted in a 14% rise in the state incarceration rate and a 72% rise in the federal incarceration rate in the last 10 years. Moreover, more than 7 million are under some sort of supervision of the corrections systems, that is, parole or probation of one sort or another.

About 25% of jail inmates are serving sentences for drug offenses. And those that are imprisoned for drug-related offenses, that is, property-related offenses, such as theft and burglary, and public order offenses, such as driving-related offenses, may bring that number up to between 55% and 75% of the prison population.

Posted by Bill at July 3, 2006 11:45 PM