The extent to which this is true is often exaggerated. Violent criminals are the largest share of the state prison population [0], followed by serious property

The extent to which this is true is often exaggerated. Violent criminals are the largest share of the state prison population [0], followed by serious property crimes, such as theft and burglary. The modal state prisoner is a violent repeat offender who is overwhelming likely to re-offend upon release. Even once you get down to the "drugs" and "public order" categories, quite a large share of these guys have plead down from more serious charges of which they're almost certainly guilty, and those who really are in for "drugs" are not guilty of mere possession (they're dealers, distributors, etc). Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html [0] Local jails are full mostly of people awaiting trial. That's a whole separate conversation. Federal prisons, too, are best thought of as a different topic, since the federal authorities are in pursuit of a particular set of criminals and the population skews heavily toward offenders who aren't representative of the broader prison population.