Just to add, we can't blame the large prison population on drug offenses alone, although we do jail a lot of people for drugs (and should jail none IMOP) it's not the whole picture, particularly with state prisons where only about 1 in 5 people are jailed for drug offenses (Violent crimes being the biggest part of that pie).
Federal Drug incarcerations are a much higher percent, but this isn't low level users either.
When we ask, "why do we have so many people locked up?" we also should ask "why do we have so many people we need to lock up"? What the hell is our problem as a society that it's like this?
Federal Drug incarcerations are a much higher percent, but this isn't low level users either.
When we ask, "why do we have so many people locked up?" we also should ask "why do we have so many people we need to lock up"? What the hell is our problem as a society that it's like this?
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html