Life in prison for stealing food

[Adam Stevens]

A>
>>Along with the drug war (which is a smaller factor than it's sometimes
>>made out to be)
>
>Yeah, I was surprised at how low - relatively speaking - the drug share is,
>as outrageous and stupid as the war on drugs is. In 1996, 26% of prisoners
>(292,000 of them) were in for drug offenses, and drug convictions were
>responsible for 29% of the growth in the prison pop from 1990-96. That
>means the drug share is increasing, but not anywhere near as much as you
>might expect.
>
>Doug>

Keep in mind that in 1971 there were fewer than 200,000 inmates in US state
and federal prisons for ALL crimes combined.  So if there are "only" 292,000
people incarcerated for drug offenses, that's still nearly 100,000 more than
were locked up for all offenses before the incarceration boom started.
There are now about 1.2 million in state and federal prisons, and the total
is about 1.7 million if local jail populations are included.