Experts suggest having probation or shorter prison terms for minor drugpossession

Carol Forsloff - In response to the number of people
in jail for what is ordinarily called victimless crimes, experts offer amendments to
sentencing guidelines  to reduce penalties on
possession of small amounts of drugs.



Cocaine offenses have often come
with mandatory sentences that could be up to ten years for a first
offense.  New guidelines are these, eliminating the mandatory minimum of
five years for simple possession of crack cocaine and the 20-year
statutory maximum for simple possession of more than 5 grams of crack
cocaine:



Here is a quote
from the proposed changes that explains the present status: "The
statutory penalty for simple possession of crack cocaine is now the same
as for simple possession of most other controlled substances: for a
first offender, a maximum term of imprisonment of one year; for repeat
offenders, maximum terms of 2 years or 3 years, and minimum terms of 15
days or 90 days, depending on the prior convictions.    The
recommendation is to change the simple possession statutory minimum to
15 days to three years penalty, a substantial reduction in sentencing."



The change specifically
recognizes the difference between the drug dealer and the user in
reducing penalties for the user, but where violence combined with drug
dealing is the offense, the penalties continue to be strengthened, yet differentiated from users.



Here are a random list of facts on the war on drugs
that reveals the problems involved in the incarceration of so many
people for victimless crimes, not involving violent acts toward others:



"The United States has the highest
prison population rate in the world, 756 per 100,000 of the national
population, followed by Russia (629), Rwanda (604), St Kitts & Nevis
(588), Cuba (c.531), U.S. Virgin Is. (512), British Virgin Is. (488),
Palau (478), Belarus (468), Belize (455), Bahamas (422), Georgia (415),
American Samoa (410), Grenada (408) and Anguilla (401).



"During 2007, the prison population increased more rapidly than the U.S. resident population.

(1998) "[The U.S.] nonviolent prisoner population, alone, is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska."

Source: 

John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent
Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's One Million Nonviolent
Prisoners (Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 1999), pg. 4.

(2007) According to the American
Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate
per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug
offenses in 2007. That means states spent approximately $17,110,415 per
day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,245,301,475 per year.

In addition the prison population that has skyrocketed in the past 40 years has been dominated by drug arrests and incarceration.

About half of the prison population
consists of drug offenders, with the percentage having grown
considerably during the past 30 years from a little over 16% to 54%. 



Add to all of this the budgetary constraints
of the several states making it more and more difficult financially to
imprison such a large population, especially given the fact many in
prison are there  for drug possession, not for trafficking. 



Advocates for reducing statutory
minimums for drug offenses support the change because of the financial issues involved in incarcerating so many people, as
well as the fact that the percentage of what are considered crimes
includes many users of drugs as opposed to drug traffickers.



The cost, experts say, in terms of finances as well as in human rights abuses is too much.