APB NEWS: America's continuing campaigns against illicit drugs and illegal immigrants have driven the number of federal inmates above 100,000 for the first time, overworking agents, overwhelming judges and overcrowding prisons. Armed federal agents from 66 different departments launched investigations against 115,692 people in 1998, 5 percent more than the 110,034 investigations in 1997 . . . Agents made 106,139 arrests in 1998 . . . The number of defendants prosecuted in federal courts rose 12.7 percent in 1998 . . . Nearly 40 percent of that increase came from an increase in federal drug charges . . . . Federal prosecutors were more likely to pursue drug cases than any other offense, and drug convicts were also the most likely to be sentenced to prison after a guilty plea or verdict . . . Drug offenders made up the greatest bulk, 58 percent, of federal prisoners . . . The INS has grown explosively in the past several years and is now the largest law enforcement agency in Washington. The Border Patrol, the INS' largest division, has grown from 3,920 agents in 1993 to 7,714 agents in 1998.
SCRIPPS HOWARD: The first comprehensive gathering of federal arrest figures portrays a growing federal law-enforcement presence in the United States, with increases in the numbers of federal agents, prosecutions and convictions . . . There were 83,000 federal law-enforcement officers in 1998 . . . That number has risen steadily since 1993, when there were 69,000 federal agents [a 20% increase] . . . Some analysts and legal experts see in the statistics a confirmation of the "federalization" of law enforcement in America.
Edward Mallett, a Houston lawyer and the incoming president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said, "What is being reported here is pretty much what one would expect. ...The federalization of some formerly state offenses accounts for some of this . . . Cases federal prosecutors would have declined a year ago they are prosecuting now. They used to turn down drug prosecutions under five kilos; now they'll prosecute for an ounce and a half. They're looking for work."