Crime Rates & Drugs (APA)

80% on inmates—1.4 million—have histories with substance involvement (In other words, they have violated drug or alcohol laws, they were high when they committed their crimes, they stole property to buy drugs, and/or they have histories of drug/alcohol abuse and addiction).

Among the 1.4 million substance-involved inmates are parents of 2.4 million children, many of them minors.

One of every 144 American adults is behind bars for a crime in which the drugs and/or alcohol were involved.

By the year 2000, if current trends continue, the nation will break the $100 million-a-day barrier in spending to incarcerate individuals with serious drug and alcohol problems.

49% of state inmates convicted of violent crimes were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol during their crimes.

51% of state inmates convicted of property crimes were under the influence of drugs and or alcohol during their crimes.

32% of state inmates have parents who were regular drug users.

. . .
s. It’s projected to go up by 25 percent in the next five years. Somehow we’ve got to take the billions that are available for prison construction and make sure that the states have the legal option to take that money and include drug treatment and testing as part of that block grant,” (Barry, 1998: 3). There has also been an increased push by the federal government to enact harsher laws and design more programs aimed at helping combat the typical “gateway” drugs that lead to harder drug use and crime. These drugs include alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana. More monies have been earmarked for educational, prevention and educational programs designed to make adolescents and the public aware that these drugs are often ones which are being used by criminals when they commit their first crimes. Further, the damages and abuses from alcohol alone make these types of policies critical in helping to combat the problem of drug use and crime, “When you hear us talk about adolescence, we’re talking cigarettes, alcohol and pot. Those are the three gateway behaviors that are predictive statistically on drug problems later on in life. But booze is, no question, a major problem in our society. One hundred thousand dead, $150 billion i
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