| Drugs Still
Driving Growth in U.S. Prison Population August
8, 2002 Overall growth in the U.S. prison
population has slowed, but drug
sentences are still putting unprecedented numbers of
African-Americans behind bars, the Associated Press reported
July 31.
Prison populations grew slower in
2001 than at any time in the last
30 years. But 10 percent of black
men between the ages of 25 and 29
were in prison, compared to 2.9 percent
of Hispanic men and 1.2 percent of
white men.
"If black male inmates in local
jails are added, the proportion rises
to nearly one in seven," said
Marc Mauer, director of the
Sentencing Project, which released
the analysis of federal prison trends.
Drug convictions resulted in 27
percent of the increase in black
incarceration, compared with 7 percent
for Hispanic inmates and 15 percent
for white inmates. Most of the growth
in drug sentencing is in the federal
prison system, while state courts are
more likely to imprison violent
offenders. |
