U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

Re:U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Ta... by 1_2__3 on Friday December 30, 2016 @02:29PM (#13286671)

So if you're right then doesn't that mean that half of all federal inmates are there for marijuana possession?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Ta... by Spare_account on Friday December 30, 2016 @02:47PM (#13286841)

From the grandfather post to yours:

"There's about 95,000 people in federal prison with a drug offense as their most serious charge. About 11,500 of those charges involved primarily marijuana. (The overwhelming majority of that is for trafficking, not possession.)"

So no, your statement is not correct. If we take 'overwhelming majority' of 11,500 as 60%, that would leave ~5000 prisoners whose 'most serious charge' is possession of marijuana. Or about 2.5% of the federal inmate population (all this assuming that the figures quoted are correct, I didn't source them myself).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Ta... by nodamage on Friday December 30, 2016 @02:45PM (#13286831)

Drug offenses, not marijuana possession specifically.

[ Parent | on HN ]