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Prison is where criminals go. Jail is where people not convicted of a crime go.

Drug Offenses are nearly half the prison population [1]. So the prison population can decrease by significant amounts without releasing any violent criminals.

[1]: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen...



> Drug Offenses are nearly half the prison population

this is not true. your data is federal only. most prisoners are at state prisons. drug offense is about 1/5 of total.

source https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html


A reduction of 20% is most certainly significant.


What proportion of them are in prison for possession of small/personal amounts?

And is imprisoning people who are smuggling/distributing hard and potentially very dangerous drugs really that controversial?


I have no idea, I don't live there. I'm responding to the assertion that 1/5 is not significant.


no one asserted 1/5 is not significant. you misread this.

i was just stating the fact that the initial number posted was wrong/incomplete.




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