American Quote by Barry McCaffrey

“The percentage of drug arrests that result in prison sentences (rather than dismissal, community service, or probation) has quadrupled, resulting in a prison-building boom…

— Michelle Alexander

In 1970, there were approximately 330,000 prisoners in the US. Today there are 2.3 million behind bars - more than any country in the…

— Sam Branson

Justified by the war on drugs, the United States is in the midst of a prison binge made obvious by the fact that since…

— Henry Giroux

Did you know there are more people behind bars for drug offenses in the United States than there are in prison for all crimes…

— Anonymous

“In truth, the U.S.-sponsored international “War on Drugs” is a war on poor people, most of them subsistence farmers caught in a dangerous no-win…

— Gabor Maté

“Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses are the primary reason that the U.S. prison population has ballooned since the 1980s to over 2.5 million…

— Piper Kerman

“Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses are the prime reason that the U.S. prison population has ballooned since the 1980s to over 2.5 million…

— Piper Kerman

For reasons that have stunningly little to do with crime or crime rates, we, as a nation, have chosen to lock up more than…

— Michelle Alexander

“The U.S. incarceration rate is the world’s highest and some nine to ten times that of many European countries. Almost 1 in 100 American…

— Joseph E. Stiglitz

The war on drugs has been the engine of mass incarceration. Drug convictions alone constituted about two-thirds of the increase in the federal prison…

— Michelle Alexander

“In the federal system alone there were 90,000 prisoners locked up for drug offenses, compared with about 40,000 for violent crimes. A federal prisoner…

— Piper Kerman

When President Nixon declared war on drugs on June 17, 1971, about 110 people per 100,000 in the population were incarcerated. Today, we have…

— Maia Szalavitz