One in four American prisoners in for drugs

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Critics of American drug policies have long said that the war on drugs is really a war on people. Today, the JUSTICE POLICY INSTITUTE is releasing a new study chock-full of jaw-dropping statistics to prove it.

One in four people locked up in American prisons is behind bars for a drug offense, the study finds. They number almost as many as the entire US prisoner population did in 1980 (458,131 vs. 474,368). The study adds that the US incarcerates 100,000 more people for drug offenses than there are people imprisoned for all offenses in the entire European Union — even though the EU has 100 million more citizens than the US. Other stats show how America’s war on drugs has been waged disproportionately against African Americans.

Calling the system long on prison terms and short on treatment, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich., has announced legislation that would offer non-violent drug users rehabilitation instead of incarceration.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate