untry in the world. Thanks in large part to the country's war on drugs, US prison and jail populations are 2-1/2 times larger than they were in 1980. That growth has outpaced all attempts to house and care for the inmates. Each week the United States must add nearly 1,000 prison beds for its rapidly growing inmate population. Prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses cost the American tax payers more than 315 million dollars a year(Horowitz 6). New York spends 30,000 a year to keep a prisoner. Even the most expensive in patient treatment programs cost no more than $20,000 a year. The typical outpatient program costs no more than $3,600 a year(Horowitz 4). The numbers show that it is cheaper to treat people for drugs than it is to incarcerate them. Drug laws target minority populations. Blacks and Hispanics make up approximately 20% of the US population, they make up nearly 75% of the men and women in jails and prisons for drug violations(Skolnick 2). Five grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory minimum five year sentence. Whereas it takes more than a pound of powdered cocaine to get a five year sentence (Horowitz 7). Crack and powdered cocaine are chemically the same. Crack is the cheaper version of this drug and because of this it has flooded urban non-white areas of the country. Whereas cocaine is an expensive drug that is normally used by white wealthy people. This is a direct attack on minority populations. They cant afford decent attorneys, therefore they invariably end up in prison. Whereas rich white people usually dont go to jail simply because they can afford decent legal counsel. Once the addicts are in prison they adopt a violent lifestyle in order to survive the environment. They dont always just go back to normal when they get out. So what you have are legions of people addicted to drugs and angry at the same time, walking the streets. Those two are not a good combination. According to a 1989 and 1990 American Jail Associ...
