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by Deconstructionist on Fri Feb 29, 2008 at 07:54:29 AM EST
  we need to approximate the causes for the prison population explosion.

 People being imprisoned because they smoke marijuana is not among them. If the possession and use of marijuana was legalized tomorrow the impact on prison populations would be below neglible. (Many excellent reasons for legalizing the recreational use of marijuana exist but decreasing prison populations is not among them.) Furthermore, if we immediately released every convict whose only offense was selling small amounts of marijuana we'd reduce the prison population by far less than 1%.

  Getting that out of the way, we could begin to address real issues.  This begins with acknowledging that even imposing alternative sentences on  all non-violent first offenders standing alone won't help very much in the long run. Why? Because we have many violent offenders and we have many repeat offenders.

  The real questions are  how do we reduce the incidence of violence in our society and, probably most importantly, what can we do that will be effective to reduce recidivism after a first offense.

  One fallacy,  I believe, is the notion that eliminating drug prohibition will reduce crime dramatically because it will mean less laws for people to violate. I don't believe that is true.

  Many people sell illegal drugs quite simply because they want the money. If we eliminate that method of making money, they will still want money and many of them will not then choose to go get a legal job, but rather will choose other illegal methods of making money.

  Ultimately, the answers lie in somehow creating a society where far fewer people are willing to break laws to get money and also where the use of violence is less prevalent both to get money and to "solve" disputes between persons and groups.

  The whole idea that the "criminal justice system" is the locus where these problems will be solved is largely  erroneous. The criminal justice system basically operates where society has failed.

   

Interesting point. According the DOJ: (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Feb 29, 2008 at 01:31:29 PM EST
recent estimates from the BJS show that at midyear 2002, approximately 8,400 state prisoners (0.7% total state prisoner population) were serving time for possessing
marijuana in any amount.

Fewer than half of that group, or about
3,600 inmates, were incarcerated on a first offense.

In other words, of the more than 1.2 million people doing time in state prisons across America, only a small fraction (0.3%) were firsttime offenders sentenced just for marijuana possession. And again, this figure includes possession of any amount.

Many inmates ultimately sentenced for marijuana possession were initially crimes but were able to or lighter sentences through plea agreements with prosecutors.

On the federal level, prosecutors focus largely on traffickers, kingpins, and other major drug criminals, so federal marijuana cases often involve hundreds of pounds of the drug.

Cases involving smaller amounts are typically handled on the state level. This is part of the reason why hardly anyone ends up in federal prison for simple possession of marijuana.

The fact is, of all drug defendants sentenced in federal court for marijuana offenses in 2001, the vast majority were convicted of trafficking.

Only 2.3 percent--186 people--were sentenced for simple possession, and of the 174 for whom sentencing information is known, just 63 actually served time behind bars.

It's important to point out that many inmates ultimately sentenced for marijuana possession were initially charged with more serious crimes but were able to negotiate reduced charges or lighter sentences through plea agreements with prosecutors.

Therefore, the 2.3 percent figure for simple possession defendants may give an inflated impression of the true number, since it also includes those inmates who pled down from more serious charges.



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