Research Paper on:
Drug Offenders and Modern Day Prisons

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
We also hear a great deal about the war on drugs, a war that many argue is ineffective in changing realities. Many argue that the overcrowding of our prisons is  due to this war on drugs. Now, while that may or may not be the case, it is perhaps important to understand the relationship between our prison system today and  drug offenders. In the following paper we present information that pertains to this subject. The Experience and Statistics As mentioned, our prisons are severely overcrowded and according to statistics,  it seems that many are non-violent offenders and/or drug users. And, surprisingly enough, these drug offenders often do more time in prison than violent offenders: "Many prison terms for non-violent  drug offenders last longer than those people convicted of violent crimes like assault and armed robbery" (Drug War Questions and Answers). There are numerous statistics concerning non-violent drug offenders  in prison today. All of the statistics indicate that a large growth rate in the imprisoning of individuals is due to incarceration of such individuals. "According to the US Justice  Department, between 1990 and 2000 Overall, the percentage of violent Federal inmates declined from 17% to 10%. While the number of offenders in each major offense category increased, the number  incarcerated for a drug offense accounted for the largest percentage of the total growth (59%), followed by public-order offenders (32%)" (Drug War Facts: Prisoners). Another study indicates that, "As a  result of increased prosecutions and longer time served in prison, the number of drug offenders in Federal prisons increased more than 12% annually, on average, from 14,976 during 1986 to  68,360 during 1999" (Drug War Facts). Even from these two simple statistics we can easily note that the increase in the number of individuals incarcerated has increased dramatically in