New Survey Charts Drug Offenders in Federal and State Prisons

SENTENCING September-October 1994

In the first survey comparing inmates in Federal and State prisons, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Bureau of Prisons found that federal prisoners are three times as likely as state prisoners to have been convicted on drug trafficking charges (Caroline Wolf Harlow, "Comparing Federal and State Prison Inmates, 1991," U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sept. 1994, NCJ-145864).

58% of Federal prisoners were serving time for a drug offense, while only 21% of State prisoners were convicted on a drug charge. 43% of Federal and 13% of State prisoners were incarcerated for drug trafficking. Conducted in 1991, the survey is the largest ever of U.S. prisoners. Investigators interviewed a nationally representative sample of 6,572 Federal and 13,986 State prisoners.

Some other findings:

• Federal inmates were less likely to be drug users (42% Federal, 62% State) and less likely to have used drugs when committing the offense for which they were incarcerated (17% Federal, 31% State).
   
• Federal inmates were slightly less likely to be participating in a drug treatment program while in prison (15% Federal, 20% State), and were slightly less likely to have participated in prison drug treatment in the past (43% Federal, 48% State).
   
• In Federal and State prisons, a larger proportion of the female prison population was serving time for drug offenses than the proportion of men (66% women, 57% men Federal; 33% women, 21% men State).
   
• Hispanic and black prisoners were more likely than white prisoners to be serving time in Federal and State prisons for a drug offense. In Federal prisons, 80% of the Hispanics, 55% of the blacks, and 46% of the whites were convicted on a drug charge. For State prisons, those numbers were 33% Hispanics, 25% blacks, and 12% whites.

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