NCJ Number
145069
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1993) Pages: 528- 542
Date Published
1993
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The authors illustrate how the police, courts, and corrections systems in Texas in the 1980's acted on demands to get tough on drug offenders, yet comply with a prison population cap.
Abstract
Drug arrests increased by 69 percent during the decade but remained a small proportion of the total police effort. Instead, the "war on drugs" was waged primarily in the courts' not surprisingly, as the State's prosecutors and district trial judges are elected officials. Some offenses that were treated as misdemeanors in 1980 were treated as felonies by 1989 and were increasingly likely to result in imprisonment. More drug offenders were convicted (a 329- percent increase) and imprisoned, and subsequently, released early in order to comply with the inmate population cap. Thus, imprisonment lost much of its punitiveness and even became, to many convicts, preferable to probation. This "ceremonial" cycle of justice may have adversely affected crime rates and public safety. 5 tables, 1 figure, 6 endnotes, and 47 references