The criminal justice system is filled with non-violent offenders because their drug use is perceived as behavior that is harmful to society. Statistics show that, drug offenders make up sixty percent of all federal inmates and account for a fifth of all state prisoners; most drug offenders are small fish in the narcotics trade and generally have no prior record of violent crime; three-fourths of all convicted drug offenders are people of color, a ratio vastly disproportionate to their share of drug users in society (Mercier, 2003). The war on drugs has shown that while communities with primarily people of color are heavily policed, and 1 in 4 African American males go to prison before the age of thirty, drug use in upper class white communities are not
The criminal justice system is filled with non-violent offenders because their drug use is perceived as behavior that is harmful to society. Statistics show that, drug offenders make up sixty percent of all federal inmates and account for a fifth of all state prisoners; most drug offenders are small fish in the narcotics trade and generally have no prior record of violent crime; three-fourths of all convicted drug offenders are people of color, a ratio vastly disproportionate to their share of drug users in society (Mercier, 2003). The war on drugs has shown that while communities with primarily people of color are heavily policed, and 1 in 4 African American males go to prison before the age of thirty, drug use in upper class white communities are not