Although the United States encompasses less than five percent of the world’s population, it houses 25 percent of the world’s prisoner population. And a new Pew Charitable Trust study may explain one reason why.
PCT compared imprisonment data over 48 states in 2014 and found that higher imprisonment rates do not decrease drug use, overdoses, or arrests.
“For instance, Tennessee imprisons drug offenders at a rate more than three times greater than New Jersey, but the illicit drug use rate in the two states is virtually the same,” the study stated. “Conversely, Indiana and Iowa have nearly identical rates of drug imprisonment, but Indiana ranks 27th among states in its rate of illicit drug use and 18th in drug overdose deaths while Iowa ranks 44th and 47th respectively.”
Pew’s research adds to mounting data against incarceration as a solution to the drug epidemic. A 2014 National Research Council study also found that drug sentencing “ha[s] few, if any, deterrent effects.”
Pew sent their research in a letter to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Monday, who is heading President Donald Trump’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.
“This is fresh data that should inform the important conversation happening in Washington and around the country about what the most effective strategies are for combatting the rise in opioid addiction and other substance abuse,” Adam Gelb, director of Pew’s public safety performance project told NBC News.
The study contradicts Attorney General Jeff Session’s “hard on drug” policies. His op-ed last week, titled “Being soft on sentencing means more violent crime,” defended his memo last month ordering federal prosecutors to pursue the maximum charges and sentencing for crime, including mandatory minimums.
Sessions argued softer sentences brought the largest single-year crime spike since 1991 and the largest murder increase since 1971.
Gelb said the data disagreed concerning drug abusers, and advocated for more efficient alternatives.
“If locking up more drug offenders worked as intended, then we would expect to see states with higher rates of drug imprisonment enjoy lower rates of drug abuse,” Gelb said in a release. “But that’s not what the data show. Instead, we see no correlation at all. There’s more punishment in those states, and higher taxpayer costs for prisons, but no evidence of benefits for public health or public safety.”
Christie has supported drug treatment rather than imprisonment for non-violent drug offenders. In a 2015 campaign speech, he shared personal experiences of family and friends who suffered from addiction, and argued it should be treated as a disease, not a crime.
The commission first met Wednesday to interview a panel of drug prevention and treatment experts.
Criminal justice reform is a top priority for millennials who will have to foot the bill. On average, one inmate costs $36,286 per year; a total of $83.5 billion per year for all inmates nationwide.
