In six pages this paper discusses nonviolent drug offenders in a consideration of the experiences that confront them in prison. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JR7_RAdrg.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
has not proved successful in the long run. Because of this war on drugs our prisons are severely overcrowded with many non-violent offenders, 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" (Anonymous Drug War Questions and Answers, 2002; drugwar.htm). In the following paper we examine some of the conditions and experiences of the non-violent drug offender who is imprisoned. The
paper discusses the experiences and statistics of those in prison, how prisoners often obtain drugs while in prison, and the result to those imprisoned for drug use. The
Experience and Statistics 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%)" (Anonymous Drug War Facts: Prisoners, 2002; prison.htm). 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" (Anonymous Drug War Facts: Prisoners, 2002; prison.htm). Even from these two simple
statistics we can easily note that the increase in the number of individuals incarcerated has increased dramatically in the past decade due to the war on drugs and mandatory sentencing.