Drugs and Prisons, Jails, Probation, and Parole

Federal:
"ƒ On September 30, 2022 (the most recent date for which federal prison offense data were available), 46% (66,000) of all persons in federal prison were serving time for a drug offense and 43% (61,400) were serving time for a public order offense (tables 19 and 20).

"ƒ Almost 5% (6,400) of the federal prison population on September 30, 2022 was in prison for an immigration offense.

"ƒ Thirty-five percent of black federal prisoners were serving sentences for a weapons offense, compared to 15% of white; 14% of American Indian or Alaska Native; 12% of Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander; and 11% of Hispanic federal prisoners."

State:
"ƒ Of the 1,021,300 persons in state prison at yearend 2021 (the most recent year for which state prison offense data were available), 642,500 (63%) were serving sentences for a violent offense, 132,800 (13%) for a property crime, 127,300 (13%) for a drug offense, and 111,900 (11%) for a public order offense (tables 16 and 17).

"ƒ A quarter of females in state prison (25%) were serving sentences for a drug offense.

"ƒ In 2021, a total of 160,300 persons were sentenced to state prison for rape or sexual assault and 155,100 for murder or nonnegligent manslaughter.

"ƒ In 42 states, more than half of the persons in prison on December 31, 2021 were serving time for a violent offense (table 18).

"ƒ At yearend 2021, persons imprisoned for a violent offense made up more than 80% of two states’ prison populations (Alaska and California)."

• Table: Number of sentenced people in state prisons in the US, by offense, 1980, 1985, 1990, and 2000-2021
• Table: Number of sentenced people in federal prisons in the US, by offense, 1980, 1990, 1995, and 2000-2022

Of the 2,963,000 adults on probation in the US at the end of 2021, 16% (approximately 474,080 people) had a drug charge as their most serious offense. The most serious offense was unknown for 38% of the total (approximately 1,125,940 people).

Of the 803,200 people on parole in the US at the end of 2021, 22% (approximately 176,704 people) had a drug charge as their most serious offense. The most serious offense was unknown for another 22% of the total.

The US Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that at yearend 2021 there were 1,021,288 sentenced people in state prisons in the US, of whom 127,348 (12.5%) had as their most serious offense a drug charge: 34,382 for drug possession (3.4%) and 92,965 for "other" drug offenses, including manufacturing and sale (9.1%).

Table: Number of Sentenced People In State Prisons in the US Whose Most Serious Offense Was A Drug Charge, By Gender, 2006-2021

The US Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that on Sept. 30, 2022, there were a total of 143,644 sentenced people in federal prisons in the US. Of those, 65,976 people (45.9% of the total) had as their most serious charge a drug offense. According to BJS, that figure "Includes trafficking, possession, and other drug offenses."

"One primary reason for sentencing an offender to prison is deterrence—conveying the message that losing one’s freedom is not worth whatever one gains from committing a crime. If imprisonment were an effective deterrent to drug use and crime, then, all other things being equal, the extent to which a state sends drug offenders to prison should be correlated with certain drug-related problems in that state. The theory of deterrence would suggest, for instance, that states with higher rates of drug imprisonment would experience lower rates of drug use among their residents.

"To test this, Pew compared state drug imprisonment rates with three important measures of drug problems — self-reported drug use (excluding marijuana), drug arrest, and overdose death — and found no statistically significant relationship between drug imprisonment and these indicators. In other words, higher rates of drug imprisonment did not translate into lower rates of drug use, arrests, or overdose deaths.

"State pairings offer illustrative examples. For instance, Tennessee imprisons drug offenders at more than three times the rate of New Jersey, but the states’ rates of self-reported drug use are virtually the same. (See Figure 3.) Conversely, Indiana and Iowa have nearly identical rates of drug imprisonment, but Indiana ranks 27th among states in self-reported drug use and 18th in overdose deaths compared with 44th and 47th, respectively, for Iowa.

"The results hold even when controlling for standard demographic variables, including the percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees, the unemployment rate, the percentage of the population that is nonwhite, and median household income."

"At midyear 2019, the highest percentage of confined persons receiving MAT was reported in jails in the Northeast (3%), followed by jails in the Midwest and West (1% each) and jails in the South (0.4%) (table 7). Jails in the South accounted for more than half (53%) of the confined jail population at midyear 2019 but nearly a quarter (24%) of jail inmates receiving MAT (not shown in tables). In comparison, jails in the Northeast accounted for 10% of confined persons but 32% of those receiving MAT (not shown in tables). 

"Jail jurisdictions holding fewer than 50 inmates reported the highest percentage of confined persons at midyear 2019 receiving MAT (2%), while jail jurisdictions in each group holding 50 or more inmates reported fewer than 1%. Fewer than 1% of persons confined in urban and rural jails were receiving MAT at midyear 2019.

"Jails located in states with the highest rates of opioid overdose deaths (24.0 or more per 100,000 U.S. residents ages 15 to 74) reported the highest percentage of confined persons receiving MAT (1.4%). In comparison, jails located in states with the lowest rates of opioid overdose deaths (fewer than 10.0 per 100,000) reported the lowest percentage of confined persons receiving MAT (0.3%). 

"About 5% of persons confined in jails in New Mexico, 4% in New Jersey and Washington, and 3% in New York were receiving MAT for OUD (map 6; appendix table 5). A total of 31 states reported that fewer than 1% of their midyear 2019 confined jail population were receiving MAT, of which 20 states reported fewer than 0.5%."

"• Violent offenders made up (55%) of all sentenced state prisoners at year-end 2018 (the most recent year for which such data are available) (tables 13 and 14).

"• An estimated 14% of sentenced state prisoners were serving time for murder or non-negligent manslaughter (177,700), and another 13% were serving time for rape or sexual assault (162,700) on December 31, 2018.

"• At year-end 2018, more than half of sentenced males (58%) and more than a third of sentenced females (38%) were serving time in state prison for a violent offense.

"• About 16% of sentenced state prisoners were serving time for a property offense (199,700), and 14% were serving time for a drug offense (176,300) at the end of 2018.

"• A larger percentage of female state prisoners were serving sentences for drug (26%) or property (24%) offenses than males (13% drugs, 16% property) at yearend 2018.

"• Among sentenced state prisoners at year-end 2018, a larger percentage of black (62%) and Hispanic (62%) prisoners than white prisoners (48%) were serving time for a violent offense.

"• Nineteen percent of Hispanics in state prison at yearend 2018 had been sentenced for murder or nonnegligent manslaughter, compared to 17% of black prisoners and 11% of white prisoners.

"• At year-end 2018, about 40% of sentenced prisoners serving time for rape or sexual assault were white (65,600 prisoners), while 22% were Hispanic (35,000) and 21% were black (34,800)."

"At midyear 2019, fewer than two-thirds (63%) of local jail jurisdictions conducted opioid use disorder (OUD) screenings at intake and more than half (54%) of jail jurisdictions provided inmates medications to treat opioid withdrawal (figure 1). Nearly a quarter (24%) of jail jurisdictions continued medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for OUD for persons admitted with a current prescription or for those who were getting services from a methadone clinic prior to admission. Nearly a fifth (19%) of jail jurisdictions initiated MAT. A quarter (25%) of jail jurisdictions provided overdose reversal medications upon release to persons with OUD."

"Between June 1 and June 30, 2019, an estimated 894,030 persons were admitted to local jails (table 3). During that period, jails in the Northeast admitted 53,340 persons and screened 80% of those admissions for OUD. More than a quarter (26%) of OUD screenings in the Northeast were positive. Jails in the West (197,570 admissions) and Midwest (208,880) had about four times as many admissions as those in the Northeast and screened a smaller percentage for OUD (68% of admissions in the West and 61% in the Midwest). Jails in the South (434,230 admissions), with more than eight times as many admissions as jails in the Northeast, screened 62% of admissions for OUD. Fifteen percent of OUD screenings in the South, 13% in the Midwest, and 11% in the West were positive. 

"Larger jail jurisdictions (those holding 1,000 or more inmates) reported that 79% of persons admitted in June 2019 were screened for OUD. Forty-eight percent of persons admitted in smaller jail jurisdictions (those holding fewer than 250 inmates) were screened for OUD. While the percentage of admissions screened generally increased with jail jurisdiction size, the percentage of screenings that were positive fluctuated. The percent of positive OUD screenings (22%) was highest in jail jurisdictions holding 100 to 249 inmates.

"Urban jails (69%) screened a larger percentage of admissions for OUD than rural jails (53%). However, a greater percentage of screenings in rural jails (19%) than in urban jails (13%) were positive. In states with the highest opioid overdose death rates (24.0 or more per 100,000 U.S. residents ages 15 to 74), local jails conducted OUD screenings on 68% of June 2019 admissions. For states with the lowest opioid overdose death rates (fewer than 10.0 per 100,000), 58% of admissions were screened. Twenty-two percent of OUD screenings in states with the highest opioid overdose death rates were positive, compared to 6% in states with the lowest rates."

"Forty-one percent of local jail jurisdictions initiated behavioral or psychological treatment for OUD, 24% continued MAT for persons admitted with a current prescription or getting services from a methadone clinic prior to admission, and 19% initiated MAT for inmates with OUD at midyear 2019. Regardless of region, jail jurisdiction size, locality, or opioid overdose death rate, larger percentages of jail jurisdictions initiated behavioral or psychological treatment for OUD than initiated or continued MAT. 

"In states with 24.0 or more opioid overdose deaths per 100,000 U.S. residents ages 15 to 74, 28% of jail jurisdictions continued MAT, while 25% initiated MAT. In states with fewer than 10.0 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000, 19% of jail jurisdictions continued MAT and 13% initiated MAT for OUD."

"About 21% each of state prisoners and sentenced jail inmates said their most serious current offense was committed to get money for drugs or to obtain drugs (table 7). A larger percentage of prisoners (39%) and jail inmates (37%) held for property offenses said they committed the crime for money for drugs or drugs than other offense types. Nearly a third of drug offenders (30% of state prisoners and 29% of jail inmates) said they committed the offense to get drugs or money for drugs. Approximately 1 in 6 state prisoners (15%) and jail inmates (14%) who committed violent offenses said they did so to get money for drugs or to obtain drugs."

"• Forty-six percent of prisoners sentenced to federal prison were serving time for a drug offense (more than 99% for drug trafficking) on September 30, 2019, the most recent date for which such data are available (tables 15 and 16).

"• At fiscal year-end 2019, about 59% (6,500) of all females sentenced to federal prison were serving time for drug offenses, compared to 45% (66,700) of all males.

"• About 1 in 12 federal prisoners (8%) were serving time for a violent offense at the end of fiscal-year 2019.

"• About 40% of federal prisoners in 2019 were in prison for a public-order offense (63,700 prisoners), including 18% (29,300) for a weapons offense and 5% (8,300) for a convicted immigration offense.

"• Almost half of white prisoners (48%) in federal prison at the end of fiscal-year 2019 had been convicted of a public-order offense, compared to 41% of black prisoners and 34% of Hispanic prisoners.

"• About 30% of black federal prisoners at the end of fiscal-year 2019 had been convicted of a weapons offense, compared to 15% of white prisoners and 9% of Hispanic prisoners.

"• Almost 60% of Hispanic federal prisoners at the end of fiscal-year 2019 were serving time for a drug offense (almost always for drug trafficking), and 16% were serving time for an adjudicated immigration offense."

"Although no amount of policy analysis can resolve disagreements about how much punishment drug offenses deserve, research does make clear that some strategies for reducing drug use and crime are more effective than others and that imprisonment ranks near the bottom of that list. And surveys have found strong public support for changing how states and the federal government respond to drug crimes.

"Putting more drug-law violators behind bars for longer periods of time has generated enormous costs for taxpayers, but it has not yielded a convincing public safety return on those investments. Instead, more imprisonment for drug offenders has meant limited funds are siphoned away from programs, practices, and policies that have been proved to reduce drug use and crime."

"During 2007-09, about 4 in 10 state prisoners (42%) and sentenced jail inmates (37%) said they used drugs at the time of the offense for which they were currently incarcerated (table 6). Among prisoners, 22% reported marijuana/hashish use at time of the offense, 16% reported cocaine/crack use, 11% reported stimulant use, and 7% reported heroin/opiate use. Among sentenced jail inmates, 19% reported using marijuana/hashish at time of the offense, 13% reported cocaine/crack use, and 8% reported stimulant and heroin/opiate use."

"Substance-involved people have come to compose a large portion of the prison population. Substance use may play a role in the commission of certain crimes: approximately 16 percent of people in state prison and 18 percent of people in federal prison reported committing their crimes to obtain money for drugs.²¹ Treatment delivered in the community is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent such crimes and costs approximately $20,000 less than incarceration per person per year.²² A study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that every dollar spent on drug treatment in the community yields over $18 in cost savings related to crime.²³ In comparison, prisons only yield $.37 in public safety benefit per dollar spent. Releasing people to supervision and making treatment accessible is an effective way of reducing problematic drug use, reducing crime associated with drug use and reducing the number of people in prison."

"Mothers in state prison (58%) were more likely than fathers (49%) to report having a family member who had also been incarcerated (table 11). Parents in state prison most commonly reported a brother (34%), followed by a father (19%). Among mothers in state prison, 13% reported a sister and 8% reported a spouse. Six percent of fathers reported having a sister who had also been incarcerated; 2%, a spouse.

"While growing up, 40% of parents in state prison reported living in a household that received public assistance, 14% reported living in a foster home, agency, or institution at some time during their youth, and 43% reported living with both parents most of the time (appendix table 11). Mothers (17%) held in state prison were more likely than fathers (14%) to report living in a foster home, agency, or institution at some time during their youth. Parents in federal prison reported lower percentages of growing up in a household that received public assistance (31%) or living in a foster home, agency, or institution (7%). These characteristics varied little by gender for parents held in federal prison.

"More than a third (34%) of parents in state prison reported that during their youth, their parents or guardians had abused alcohol or drugs. Mothers in state prison (43%) were more likely than fathers (33%) to have had this experience. Fewer parents (27%) in federal prison reported having a parent or a guardian who had abused alcohol or drugs."

Total Number of Sentenced People In Federal Prisons, 2004 = 153,776
Total Number of Sentenced People In State Prisons, 2004 = 1,274,600

Total Number of Sentenced People In Federal Prisons In The US For Whom a Drug Charge Was Their Most Serious Offense, 2004: 85,300 (55.5%)
Total Number of Sentenced People In State Prisons In The US For Whom a Drug Charge Was Their Most Serious Offense, 2004: 249,400 (19.6%)

Percent of sentenced people serving time in federal prisons whose most serious drug charges were marijuana/hashish offenses: 2004 = 12.4%
Percent of sentenced people serving time in state prisons whose most serious drug charges were marijuana/hashish, 2004 = 12.7%

(Sentenced people with drug offenses as their most serious charge) * (percent marijuana) = sentenced people serving time for marijuana offenses

Sentenced people serving time in federal prison on marijuana charges, 2004 = 10,577
Sentenced people serving time in state prisons on marijuana charges, 2004 = 31,674
Total sentenced people serving time on marijuana charges, state and federal prisons combined, 2004 = 42,251

Note: These data only address people in prisons and thus exclude everyone serving time in local jails because of a marijuana conviction.

"17% of State and 18% of Federal prisoners committed their crime to obtain money for drugs."

"Among male state prisoners, violent (47%) and property (48%) offenders were less likely to report having children than public-order (60%) and drug (59%) offenders (table 6). For women held in state prison, violent (57%) offenders were less likely than drug (63%), property (65%), and public-order (65%) offenders to be a mother.

"The prevalence of being a parent differed by gender and offense for inmates held in state and federal prisons. For state inmates, female (65%) property offenders were more likely to be a parent than male (48%) property offenders. In federal prison, male (69%) drug offenders were more likely than female (55%) drug offenders to report having children.

"Among men held in federal prison, drug offenders (69%) were more likely than property (54%) and violent (50%) offenders to report having children (appendix table 5). Public-order offenders (62%) were also more likely than violent offenders to report having children. For women in federal prison, the likelihood of being a mother did not differ by offense."

"Violent offenders (47%) were the only offender group in State prisons with less than half meeting the DSM-IV criteria for drug dependence or abuse. Property and drug offenders (63% of each) were the most likely to be drug dependent or abusing.

"Drug offenders (52%) were the only group of Federal inmates with at least half meeting the drug dependence or abuse criteria. Property offenders (27%) reported the lowest percentage of drug dependence or abuse."

"Violent offenders under Federal jurisdiction increased 46% from 1995 to 2003, and accounted for almost 8% of the total growth during the period. Homicide offenders increased 146%, from 1,068 in 1995 to 2,632 in 2003.

"While the number of offenders in each major offense category increased [from 1995 to 2003], the number incarcerated for a drug offense accounted for the largest percentage of the total growth (49%), followed by public-order offenders (38%)."

According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, of the estimated 206,300 sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction serving time for drug offenses at year-end 2014, 67,800 were non-Latino whites (32.9%), 68,000 were non-Latino African Americans (33.0%), 28,800 were Hispanic (7.2%). The ethnicity of the remaining 41,700 is not reported, meaning they could have been of another ethnicity, multiracial, or unknown.

"Increased admissions to drug treatment are associated with reduced incarceration rates. States with a higher drug treatment admission rate than the national average send, on average, 100 fewer people to prison per 100,000 in the population than states that have lower than average drug treatment admissions. Of the 20 states that admit the most people to treatment per 100,000, 19 had incarceration rates below the national average. Of the 20 states that admitted the fewest people to treatment per 100,000, eight had incarceration rates above the national average."

According to the US Justice Department, in 2004, 27.9% of people serving time for drug offenses in state prisons had a possession charge as their most serious offense; 69.4% were serving time on trafficking offenses; and 2.7% were in for "other."

"Violent offenders in State prison (50%) were less likely than drug (72%) and property (64%) offenders to have used drugs in the month prior to their offense."

"The potency of incarceration is further diminished by three other forces, researchers have found. The first, sometimes referred to as the 'replacement effect,' applies largely to crimes that occur as part of a market, such as fencing stolen property or, most notably, drug transactions. Once incarcerated, drug dealers tend to be quickly replaced by new dealers and, as during the crack epidemic, the new recruits can be younger and more prone to violence than their predecessors.⁵⁷ Thus while drug dealers no doubt deserve punishment, most leading researchers, and many law enforcement officials, now agree that incarcerating the foot soldiers in drug gangs, not to mention drug users, has a negligible impact on crime.⁵⁸ Moreover, by creating job openings in drug-dealing organizations, it draws more people into criminal lifestyles and may in certain cases exacerbate crime.⁵⁹"

"We must have law enforcement authorities address the issue because if we do not, prevention, education, and treatment messages will not work very well. But having said that, I also believe that we have created an American gulag."

"But while drug-free schools remain a fantasy, their policies are contributing to an uneducated underclass that just gets larger, more despairing, and more entrenched. This underclass now includes five million young adults between sixteen and twenty-four who are both out of school and out of work, with few skills and fewer prospects. It includes most ex-prisoners, half of whom lack a high school education, and most of whom are jobless one year after release. And it includes Black Americans and other racial minorities who have never remotely attained the standard of well-being common throughout the developed world."