NCJ Number
137262
Journal
Contemporary Policy Issues Volume: 10 Dated: (January 1992) Pages: 91- 100
Date Published
1992
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the impact of the "war on drugs" on the corrections system in California notes that the increasing inmate population has resulted in large part from the growing tendency of parole officers to cope with their rising workloads by more often requesting parole revocations for technical violations such as failing urinalysis for drug use.
Abstract
The drug law enforcement emphasis that began in 1982 increased the growth rate of new admissions to prison by 25 percent above the growth rate attributable to the war on crime. In addition to increasing the volume of prisoners and changing their composition by offense, the war on drugs changed the nature of flows between felons on parole and felons in prison. By 1988, for the first time, the number of felons returned to prison for parole violation exceeded the number of felons newly entering prison after court convictions. The result has been a reduction in discharges as a proportion of total felons on parole and an unnecessary increase in the prison population. Figures and 16 references