vast majority of prison-bound offenders are neither serious nor violent, although they have risen since 1980 by 63% (Meninger 98). With a record setting two million people now locked up in American jails and prisons, the United States has overtaken Russia and has a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any other country (Anderson 2). The United States now is unchallenged at 702 prisoners per 100,000 people in its population. On a per capita basis, according to the best available figures, the United States has three times more prisoners than Iran, four times more than Poland, five times more than Tanzania, and seven times more than Germany (Anderson 2). A major cause is the war on drugs (Derber 113). In 1980 about 40,000 Americans were locked up for drug-only offenses. Now the number has risen to 450,000, three-fourths of them being black or Latino, although drug use is no higher in those groups than among whites. Drug offenders now make up more than half of all federal prisoners (Baum 249). Experts say mandatory sentences, especially for nonviolent drug offenders, are a major reason inmate populations have risen for over 30 years (Scalia 59). "The nation needs to break the chains of our addiction to prison, and find less costly and more effective treatements" (Will Harrell 4). We need to send non-violent criminals to a better place rather than prison, like halfway houses; and, we need to promote alternatives to prison. Prison alternatives would divert drug offenders to treatment programs or other innovations to achieve a lower growth rate for prison population. As a nation, we need to end reliance on incarceration as drug-use penalties.
             More than $54 billion is spent annually on prisons in the United States, much of which is directed towards incarcerating people for non-violent drug offenses with little or no hope for access of rehabilitation services (Humphreys 2). In the November issue of Idea...