DRUGS AND CRIME

The public views drugs and crime as the two most important issues facing the nation. (Wall Street Journal/NBC Poll, December 1995)

In 1994, for the first time, arrests for drug possession reached the one million mark---a 30% increase over the past three years. Arrests for drug offenses (possession or sale) rose from 471,200 in 1980 to 1,351,400 in 1994. (Crime in the United States, 1995)

A 1995 nationwide survey found that four out of five police chiefs rank drug and alcohol abuse as the top problem of their communities. Police chiefs were ten times more likely to believe that violent crime can be curtailed more effectively by reducing drug abuse than be reducing the number of guns on the streets. (On the Front Line: Law Enforcement Views on the Death Penalty, February 1995)

Among some 300 police chiefs recently surveyed, 60% feel that law enforcement efforts to reduce the nation's drug problem have been unsuccessful: 48% of them believe a fundamental overhaul is needed in the approach to this problem. (Peter D. Hart Associates Survey, March 1996)

Juvenile arrest rates for drugs increased more than 200% between 1990 and 1994. Of the more than 800,000 children who enter the juvenile justice system each year, 80% admit to using illegal drugs. (Crime in the United States, 1994: Biden Report, February 1994)

In state prisons, the number of women drug offenders jumped more than 400% between 1986 and 1991. Incarceration increased even more dramatically for black women drug offenders, jumping 828% during the same period. More than two-thirds of the women in Federal prisons have been incarcerated for drug offenses. (The Sentencing Project, October, 1995)

The majority of Americans (59%) think rigorous, closely supervised treatment for first-time drug offenders would make a major difference in reducing the drug-related crime rate. (Peter D. Hart Research Associates Survey, February 1994)

One million prison inmates in this country have serious drug habits, regardless of the crimes for which they were convicted. Drug treatment is currently available for less than 10% of Federal inmates who need it. (Drug Use Forecasting, 1995)

Regarding drug users, as opposed to drug dealers, 59% of police chiefs polled advocated requiring users to enter treatment programs supervised by the courts over other options in the justice system. A larger segment of this group (69%) say cutting back on Federal funding for community drug courts where non-violent offenders are given a choice between prison and supervised treatment would be a step in the wrong direction. (Peter D. Hart Research Associates Survey, March 1996)

Three-fourths of men charged with domestic battery in a 1992 study reported by the National Research Council tested positive for alcohol, while half tested positive for illegal drugs. (Reiss, Jr. and Roth, 1993)

Drug testing of families with abused and neglected children in the District of Columbia Family Court in 1995 revealed that two in three parents test positive for cocaine and one in seven tests positive for heroin and other opiates. (Newmark, 1995)

In 1994, drug testing of adult male arrestees revealed drug positives ranging from 48% in Houston to 82% in Manhattan. Among juveniles, two out of five arrested in 1994 tested positive for drugs, more than twice the rate in 1991. (Drug Use Forecasting, 1991-1995)

One third of state prison inmates say that they were under the influence of drugs when they committed the crime for which they are in prison. One in four women and one in six men committed their first offense for money to buy drugs. (Survey of State Prison Inmates 1991, 1993)

Over 80% of state prison inmates had used illegal drugs and nearly half of those in prison for violent crime were current users when arrested. (Comparing Federal and State Inmates 1991, 1993; Correctional Populations in the U.S. 1991, 1992)

We now spend as much each year to incarcerate 61,000 Federal drug offenders as we do for all drug education and prevention efforts. Nationwide, corrections costs exceeded $30 billion in 1995; at least half of these costs are attributable to drug crime. (Drug Strategies Analysis, 1995)

Drug offenders now account for almost two-thirds of all Federal inmates. More than half of all inmates, Federal and state, are serving time for a nonviolent property or drug offense. The proportion of violent offenders in prison has been declining in the past decade due to a surge of inmates incarcerated for drug offenses. (Prisoners in 1994, 1995; The Sentencing Project, October 1995)