The federal government may be rethinking drug sentencing laws, but many states have done it already, according to a report by the Pew Research Center.
“Federal drug policy is in the midst of a major conceptual shift away from the long, automatic prison sentences and zero-tolerance policies of the ‘War on Drugs’ era,” the April 2 report says. “But it’s the states, whose prisons house the vast bulk of U.S. convicts, that have been leading the way in changing drug laws.
“Much of the current rethinking of America’s drug war speaks to today’s environment: Violent crime has fallen, attitudes toward drugs have shifted and the Great Recession has squeezed public budgets.”
A main factor has been the increased cost of keeping people locked in prisons, from $14,603 per prisoner in Kentucky to a high of $60,076 in New York, based on 2010 data reported by the Vera Institute. The average cost in 2014 for California is $60,000 per prisoner per year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said sentence reduction for low-level drug offenses would reduce the federal prison population.
The Pew research shows 67 percent of the public want drug offenders treated instead of imprisoned. Also, 63 percent say states should do away with mandatory prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders.
Holder points out that about half of the 200,000 federal inmates have been convicted of a drug offense.
Many states have made lowered penalties for possession and use of illegal drugs. They have cut mandatory sentence enhancements and have jurisdiction of drug courts outside the regular criminal justice system, according to the Pew report.
A March survey by Pew Research found that 72 percent of Americans believe efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than it is worth. Sixty percent said federal anti-marijuana laws should not be enforced in states where marijuana is legal.
