The Drug War, Mass

Incarceration and Race

With less than 5 percent of the world’s population stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, harshly
but nearly 25 percent of its incarcerated sentenced and saddled with a lifelong criminal record.
population1, the United States imprisons more This is particularly the case for drug law violations.
people than any other nation in the world – largely
due to the war on drugs. Misguided drug laws and
Drug Arrests, 1980-2013
harsh sentencing requirements have produced 2,000,000
profoundly unequal outcomes for people of color.
Although rates of drug use and sales are similar 1,500,000
Sales
across racial and ethnic lines, Black and Latino 1,000,000
people are far more likely to be criminalized than
500,000 Possession
white people.2
0

1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
World Incarceration Rates
USA 707 Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports.8
Rwanda 492
Russia 467
Brazil 289 Black people comprise 13 percent of the U.S.
Australia 143 population,9 and are consistently documented by the
Spain 141 Incarceration
China 124 Rate Per U.S. government to use drugs at similar rates to
Canada 118 100,000 people of other races.10 But Black people comprise 30
France 102 percent of those arrested for drug law violations11 –
Germany 81
Sweden 57 and nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated in state or
India 33 federal prison for drug law violations.12
Source: International Centre for Prison Studies, World Prison Brief.3
Similarly, Latinos make up 17 percent of the U.S.
The Drug War Drives Mass Incarceration and population, but comprise 20 percent of people in state
Racial Disparities in U.S. Judicial Systems prisons for drug offenses, and 37 percent of people
There were more than 1.5 million drug arrests in the incarcerated in federal prisons for drug offenses.13 In
U.S. in 2013. The vast majority – more than 80 2013, Latinos comprised almost half (47 percent) of all
percent – were for possession only.4 At year-end 2012, cases in federal courts for drug offenses.14
16 percent of all people in state prison were
incarcerated for a drug law violation – of whom nearly In total, approximately 57 percent people incarcerated
50,000 were incarcerated for possession alone.5 More in state prisons, and 77 percent of people incarcerated
than 50 percent of people in federal prisons are in federal prisons for drug offenses are Black or Latino,
incarcerated for drug law violations. About 500,000 compared to 30 percent of the U.S. population.15
Americans are behind bars on any given night for a
drug law violation6 – ten times the total in 1980.7 Widely adopted in the 1980s and ‘90s, mandatory
minimum sentencing laws have contributed greatly to
People of color experience discrimination at every the number of people of color behind bars.16 Research
stage of the judicial system and are more likely to be shows that prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a

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mandatory minimum sentence for Black people as for Collateral Consequences of Mass Incarceration
white people charged with the same offense.17 Among Punishment for a drug law violation is not only meted
people who received a mandatory minimum sentence out by the criminal justice system, but is also
in 2011, 38 percent were Latino and 31 percent were perpetuated by policies denying child custody, voting
Black.18 rights, employment, business loans, licensing, student
aid, public housing and other public assistance to
Nearly 80 percent of people in federal prison and people with criminal convictions. Criminal records often
60 percent of people in state prison for drug result in deportation of legal residents or denial of entry
offenses are Black or Latino.19 for noncitizens trying to visit the U.S. Even if a person
does not face jail or prison time, a drug conviction
Mass Incarceration Destroys Families often imposes a lifelong ban on many aspects of
2.7 million children are growing up in U.S. households social, economic and political life.23
in which one or more parents are incarcerated. Two-
thirds of these parents are incarcerated for nonviolent “Nothing has contributed more to the systematic
offenses, including a substantial proportion who are mass incarceration of people of color in the United
incarcerated for drug law violations. One in nine Black States than the War on Drugs.”
children has an incarcerated parent, compared to one – Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (2010).
in 28 Latino children and one in 57 white children.20
Such exclusions create a permanent second-class
status for millions of Americans, and, like drug war
Disproprotionate Impact of Drug Laws enforcement itself, fall disproportionately on people of
on Black and Latino Communities color. Nearly eight percent of Black people of voting
age are denied the right to vote because of laws that
White Latino Black
disenfranchise people with felony convictions.24
70%
60% Policy Recommendations
50%
1. Decriminalize drug possession, removing a major
40%
cause of arrest and incarceration of primarily
30%
20% people of color, helping more people receive drug
10% treatment and redirecting law enforcement
0% resources to prevent serious and violent crime.
U.S. Population People in State People in Federal 2. Eliminate policies that result in disproportionate
Prison for Drug Prison for Drug
Offenses Offenses arrest and incarceration rates by changing police
practices, rolling back harsh mandatory minimum
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; Bureau of Justice Statistics.21 sentences, and repealing sentencing disparities.25
3. End policies that exclude people with a record of
arrest or conviction from key rights and
U.S. Male Incarceration Rates, opportunities. These include barriers to voting,
December 31, 2013 employment, public housing and other public
3000 assistance, loans, financial aid and child custody.
White
2000 1
Roy Walmsley, World Population List, 10th Ed. (London:
Latino International Centre for Prison Studies, 2013); National Research
1000 Black Council, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring
Causes and Consequences (Washington, D.C.: The National
Academies Press, 2014).
0
Rate Per 100,000 –– State and Federal 2
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
Prison "Results from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health,"
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014.22 (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, 2014), Table 1.19B; Jamie Fellner, Decades of
Disparity: Drug Arrests and Race in the United States (Human Rights
Watch, 2009); Meghana Kakade et al., "Adolescent Substance Use
and Other Illegal Behaviors and Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice
System Involvement: Findings from a U.S. National Survey," American
Journal of Public Health 102, no. 7 (2012). While national arrest data
by ethnicity are not systematically collected and are therefore

Drug Policy Alliance | 131 West 33rd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001 Page 2
nyc@drugpolicy.org | 212.613.8020 voice | 212.613.8021 fax
 25
incomplete, state-level data show that Latinos are disproportionately The federal government recently indicated its intention to undertake
arrested for drug offenses. Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Arrest some of these reforms. Eric Holder, "Memorandum to United States
Research Project, "Race, Class and Marijuana Arrests in Mayor De Attorneys: Department Policy on Charging Mandatory Minimum
Blasio's Two New Yorks: The N.Y.P.D.'S Marijuana Arrest Crusade Sentences and Recidivist Enhancements in Certain Drug Cases,"
Continues in 2014," (2014); California Department of Justice, "Crime in (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Attorney General, United States
California 2013," (2014). Department of Justice, 2013).
3
International Centre for Prison Studies, World Prison Brief,
http://www.prisonstudies.org/world-prison-brief (2014).
4
Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Crime in the United States, 2013,"
(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2014).
5
E. Ann Carson, "Prisoners in 2013," (Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014), Tables 13 &
14.
6
Ibid., Tables 14 & 15; The Sentencing Project, "Trends in U.S.
Corrections," (2013).
7
Peter Reuter, "Why Has Us Drug Policy Changed So Little over 30
Years?," Crime and Justice 42, no. 1 (2013); National Research
Council, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring
Causes and Consequences.
8
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports; Bureau of
Justice Statistics, Arrest Data Analysis Tool.
9
U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts (2014)
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html.
10
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
"Results from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health,"
Table 1.19B.
11
Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Crime in the United States, 2013,"
Table 43.
12
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Justice Statistics Program;
Carson, "Prisoners in 2013," Table 14.
13
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Justice Statistics Program; ibid.
14
United States Sentencing Commission, Interactive Sourcebook
(isb.ussc.gov) (2013 Datafile, USSCFY2013).
15
Carson, "Prisoners in 2013," Table 14; Bureau of Justice Statistics,
"Federal Justice Statistics Program," http://www.bjs.gov/fjsrc/.
16
National Research Council, The Growth of Incarceration in the
United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences.Barbara S.
Meierhoefer, The General Effect of Mandatory Minimum Prison Terms
(Washington: Federal Judicial Center, 1992), 20; Marc Mauer, "The
Impact of Mandatory Minimum Penalties in Federal Sentencing,"
Judicature 94(2010).
17
Sonja B Starr and Marit Rehavi, "Mandatory Sentencing and Racial
Disparity: Assessing the Role of Prosecutors and the Effects of
Booker," Yale Law Journal 123, no. 1 (2013).
18
United States Sentencing Commission, "Quick Facts: Mandatory
Minimum Penalties,"
http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-
publications/quick-
facts/Quick_Facts_Mandatory_Minimum_Penalties.pdf.
19
E. Ann Carson and Daniela Golinelli, "Prisoners in 2012: Trends in
Admissions and Releases, 1991-2012," (Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2013), Table 8.
20
Bruce Western and Becky Pettit, Collateral Costs: Incarceration's
Effect on Economic Mobility (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010), 4.
21
Carson, "Prisoners in 2013," Table 14; Bureau of Justice Statistics,
"Federal Justice Statistics Program".
22
Carson, "Prisoners in 2013," Table 8.
23
Meda Chesney-Lind and Marc Mauer, Invisible Punishment: The
Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment (The New Press,
2011).
24
Christopher Uggen et al., "State-Level Estimates of Felon
Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010," (Washington, DC:
The Sentencing Project, 2012).

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