4 ms·
These are federal offenses only. Most crime is prosecuted at the state level and the majority of that isn't drug offenses. And the people in federal prison fo
by treis 6y ago
These are federal offenses only. Most crime is prosecuted at the state level and the majority of that isn't drug offenses.
And the people in federal prison for drugs don't get there by smoking pot on their front porch. They're mostly there for trafficking.
- godelski 6y agoThat's a good point. I did address the other levels here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23655174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23655174 but it was harder to find more of a breakdown in the data.
- iguy 6y agoI don't have a link handy but it's around 15% of the total prison population who are in for drug offences.
- daenz 6y agoI do have a link handy: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
- iguy 6y agoThanks! So between 10 & 20% are in for drugs -- the lower figure if I try to exclude trafficking (although roughly, as they don't always break it down). And this means "in for nothing harder than drugs" since they are counting by the worst conviction.