According to a recent report by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), the average prison sentence for a federal drug conviction has declined significantly since 1992.
In 1998, there were more federal arrests for marijuana than any other drug, and marijuana cases accounted for a third of all federal drug convictions.
TRAC analyzed data provided by the U.S. Justice Department, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the U.S. Sentencing Commission for the study.
Further, the report found that two-thirds of all U.S. Customs cases involve marijuana. Customs cases accounted for 21 percent of all federal drug cases.
Federal drug arrests and convictions were shown to be increasing while the length of prison sentences were declining. Between 1992 and 1998 the average prison sentence for a federal drug offense fell 22 percent, from 86 months to 67 months.
Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project, credits the decline of prison sentences to changes in sentencing laws in 1994 that allow judges to give first-time, non-violent drug convicts a reduction in mandatory minimum prison sentences — a so-called “safety valve.”
“It took a couple years for the effect to become apparent, but what’s been demonstrated there, which is what many people had suspected, is that there are considerable numbers of low-level drug offenders in the federal system, and judges have taken advantage of the safety valve to give them less time,” Mauer said.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751 or Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project at (202) 628-0871.
