[kooshball]

> Drug Offenses are nearly half the prison population

this is not true. your data is federal only. most prisoners are at state prisons. drug offense is about 1/5 of total.

source https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html

[dotancohen]

A reduction of 20% is most certainly significant.

[shjake]

What proportion of them are in prison for possession of small/personal amounts?

And is imprisoning people who are smuggling/distributing hard and potentially very dangerous drugs really that controversial?

[dotancohen]

I have no idea, I don't live there. I'm responding to the assertion that 1/5 is not significant.

[kooshball]

no one asserted 1/5 is not significant. you misread this.

i was just stating the fact that the initial number posted was wrong/incomplete.