Are more people in prison in the US for violent crimes than for drug offenses?
The Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit group advocating against excessive incarceration, calculates that more than twice as many people in the U.S. are incarcerated in connection with violent offenses compared to drug-related offenses. Its estimates include pretrial detention as well as convicted offenders, and span the U.S.'s multi-level justice system, providing a more complete and timely view than official federal and state statistics. The federal prison system, smaller overall, has a relatively larger share of drug-related offenders in its population than state systems.
Overall, "four out of five people in prison or jail are locked up for something other than a drug offense—either a more serious offense or an even less serious one," says the Policy Initiative's report.
