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In America nearly 50% of the federal prison population are in for drug offenses according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons data current as of may 30th, 2015[0].

In America nearly 50% of the federal prison population are in for drug offenses according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons data current as of may 30th, 2015[0]. [0]http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offens... edit: As pointed out below it was the federal prison pop. Also, made it more obvious that I didn't mean 50% of America's total population.

tomjakubowski 11y ago
That's 50% of the prison population, to be clear.
tptacek 11y ago
No, that's 50% of the federal prison population (notice how the totals add up). Most incarcerated Americans are in state prisons, and drug crimes are a much smaller fraction of most state prison inmate populations.
- ams6110 11y ago
  Directly drug-related (possession or trafficking) yes... but how many property and violent crimes have their root cause being drug-related? I would guess many.
  - rayiner 11y ago
    And how many violent criminals are in prison on drug charges because they're easier to prove? I think people too readily accept the narrative that crime in the U.S. can be traced back to the drug war. Here is drug war spending: http://cdn.thewire.com/media/old_wire/img/upload/2012/10/12/drug-spending-addiction/original.png http://cdn.thewire.com/media/old_wire/img/upload/2012/10/12/... Here is violent crime rate: http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Roman_blog4.pdf http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/... Violent crime started trending up in 1963, about 8 years before Nixon declared the war on drugs. By the time the drug war really got going in 1982-86, violent crime rates had already tripled.
    - Zigurd 11y ago
      It was lead in paint and gas that caused a rise in violent crime. It wasn't prisons that stopped that. The Drug War and school-to-prison pipleline are real, too. We farm black people to keep no-neck white men in "good jobs at good wages." If anything, the Drug War is preventing a further drop in crime as lead gets flushed out of the environment.
      - rayiner 11y ago
        Everybody has their theory of why crime increased in the 70's and started coming down after the 90's. People tend to adopt the theory that fits their worldview. I'm partial to the lead theory myself because I'm a rabid environmentalists. Urbanists blame suburbanization and white flight. Civil libertarians blame the drug war. There is no conclusive proof or even extensive evidence in favor of any of those theories. But I think the drug war theory is one of the less compelling explanations given the evidence we have.
        Zigurd 11y ago
        There have been meta-analyses of lead http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/violent-crime-lead-poisoning-british-export http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/violent... They are pretty compelling. Lead wasn't just about crime. Tetraethyl lead was almost a global disaster that might have cost humanity dearly in some very general ways. The hypothesis is very strong, too. Refinery workers went violently insane. There was no question what the effect would be if there was enough cause to cause it.
        tptacek 11y ago
        Seems like everyone can be right about this. Lead. Intoxicated dissipation, a stagnant pool that has bred crime for millenia. Poverty. White flight. Restrictions on family planning. And all these things feed on each other. Stop and ask yourself: is there anyone who regularly writes on HN who thinks the drug war is a good thing? If you took a poll of HN commenters, full legalization would come out, where, 98%? Clearly, when we discuss prison and the drug war, we're all talking about something more subtle than whether we should imprison people for doing drugs.

tomjakubowski 11y ago

That's 50% of the prison population, to be clear.

tptacek 11y ago

No, that's 50% of the federal prison population (notice how the totals add up). Most incarcerated Americans are in state prisons, and drug crimes are a much smaller fraction of most state prison inmate populations.

ams6110 11y ago
Directly drug-related (possession or trafficking) yes... but how many property and violent crimes have their root cause being drug-related? I would guess many.
- rayiner 11y ago
  And how many violent criminals are in prison on drug charges because they're easier to prove? I think people too readily accept the narrative that crime in the U.S. can be traced back to the drug war. Here is drug war spending: http://cdn.thewire.com/media/old_wire/img/upload/2012/10/12/drug-spending-addiction/original.png http://cdn.thewire.com/media/old_wire/img/upload/2012/10/12/... Here is violent crime rate: http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Roman_blog4.pdf http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/... Violent crime started trending up in 1963, about 8 years before Nixon declared the war on drugs. By the time the drug war really got going in 1982-86, violent crime rates had already tripled.
  - Zigurd 11y ago
    It was lead in paint and gas that caused a rise in violent crime. It wasn't prisons that stopped that. The Drug War and school-to-prison pipleline are real, too. We farm black people to keep no-neck white men in "good jobs at good wages." If anything, the Drug War is preventing a further drop in crime as lead gets flushed out of the environment.
    - rayiner 11y ago
      Everybody has their theory of why crime increased in the 70's and started coming down after the 90's. People tend to adopt the theory that fits their worldview. I'm partial to the lead theory myself because I'm a rabid environmentalists. Urbanists blame suburbanization and white flight. Civil libertarians blame the drug war. There is no conclusive proof or even extensive evidence in favor of any of those theories. But I think the drug war theory is one of the less compelling explanations given the evidence we have.
      - Zigurd 11y ago
        There have been meta-analyses of lead http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/violent-crime-lead-poisoning-british-export http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/violent... They are pretty compelling. Lead wasn't just about crime. Tetraethyl lead was almost a global disaster that might have cost humanity dearly in some very general ways. The hypothesis is very strong, too. Refinery workers went violently insane. There was no question what the effect would be if there was enough cause to cause it.
        tptacek 11y ago
        Seems like everyone can be right about this. Lead. Intoxicated dissipation, a stagnant pool that has bred crime for millenia. Poverty. White flight. Restrictions on family planning. And all these things feed on each other. Stop and ask yourself: is there anyone who regularly writes on HN who thinks the drug war is a good thing? If you took a poll of HN commenters, full legalization would come out, where, 98%? Clearly, when we discuss prison and the drug war, we're all talking about something more subtle than whether we should imprison people for doing drugs.