Since 1974 over 90 percent of all state prisoners have been violent offenders or recidivists. Further, the proportion of violent offenders in prison has been declining in the past decade due to a surge of inmates incarcerated for drug offenses. The average quantity of drugs involved in federal cocaine trafficking cases is 183 pounds. Further, federal prosecutors generally select higher level drug offenses for prosecution, and let state prosecutors handle lower level offenses. Therefore, state inmates incarcerated for drug offenses are likely to include significant numbers of low-level offenders as well.
Most violent prisoners serve less than half their time in prison before being released.
Members of the Council, all of whom have extensive criminal justice experience, know that judges impose sentences based on their calculations of how much time a person will serve in prison. If a given state releases most inmates at half their maximum sentence, then a judge will impose a ten-year sentence if he or she thinks the inmate should serve five years. There is nothing deceptive about this. In fact, parole has long been recognized as the most important positive reward that prison wardens can hold out for good behavior. While human judgement is not infallible, these officials are using the information and resources at hand to attempt to provide justice and contribute to community safety.