"During 2007-09, about 4 in 10 state prisoners (42%) and sentenced jail inmates (37%) said they used drugs at the time of the offense for which they were currently incarcerated (table 6). Among prisoners, 22% reported marijuana/hashish use at time of the offense, 16% reported cocaine/crack use, 11% reported stimulant use, and 7% reported heroin/opiate use. Among sentenced jail inmates, 19% reported using marijuana/hashish at time of the offense, 13% reported cocaine/crack use, and 8% reported stimulant and heroin/opiate use."

The US Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that on Sept. 30, 2019, there were a total of 158,107 sentenced people in federal prisons in the US. Of those, 73,210 people (46.3% of the total) had as their most serious charge a drug offense. According to BJS, that figure "Includes trafficking, possession, and other drug offenses. More than 99% of federal drug offenders were sentenced for trafficking."

The US Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that at yearend 2018 there were 1,249,700 sentenced people in state prisons in the US, of whom 176,300 (14.1%) had as their most serious offense a drug charge: 46,500 for drug possession (3.7%) and 129,900 for "other" drug offenses, including manufacturing and sale (10.4%).

"On December 31, 2018, an estimated 2,123,100 persons were either under the jurisdiction of state or federal prisons or in the custody of local jails, which was 30,500 fewer persons than in 2017. By year-end 2018, the number of persons incarcerated in state or federal prisons or local jails fell to the lowest level since 2003, when 2,086,500 persons were incarcerated (not shown in tables).

"At year-end 2019, an estimated 1,430,800 prisoners were under state or federal jurisdiction, a decrease of 2% from the 1,464,400 prisoners in 2018 and 11% from the peak of 1,615,500 prisoners in 2009 (table 1). About 88% of all prisoners were under state jurisdiction and 12% were under BOP jurisdiction in 2019, with state prisoners accounting for 86% of the decline in the total prison population from 2018 (not shown in tables).

"As of 1 January 2012, there were a total of 4,052 inmates in Norwegian prisons, including those serving their sentences at home with electronic monitoring and those remanded in custody. Of all inmates at the start of the year, 29 per cent were serving sentences for drug offences (2011: 30%), 22 per cent for crimes against property and 21 per cent for violent crimes as their primary offence. Of the 910 persons held on remand at the start of 2012, 36 per cent had drug crime as their primary offence, approximately the same proportion as in 2011 (37%)."

"• At year-end 2016, a total of 14 states and the BOP met or exceeded the maximum measure of their prison facilities’ capacity, and 27 states and the BOP had a number of prisoners in their custody that met or exceeded their minimum number of beds (table 16).

"• Jurisdictions with more prisoners in custody than the maximum number of beds for which their facilities were designed, rated, or operationally intended included Illinois (138%), Nebraska (126%), Iowa (115%), the BOP (114%), Delaware (114%), Colorado (109%), and Virginia (108%)."

"• Together, state and federal correctional authorities held more than 1% of black male U.S. residents ages 20 to 64 at year-end 2019, and more than 1% of Hispanic male U.S. residents ages 20 to 54.

"• While the imprisonment rate of black males (2,203 per 100,000 black male U.S. residents) was 5.7 times the rate of white males (385 per 100,000 white male U.S. residents), the imprisonment rate of black females (83 per 100,000 black female U.S. residents) was 1.7 times the rate of white females (48 per 100,000 white female U.S. residents).

In 2015, federal prisons held a total of 185,917 sentenced adult prisoners. Of those, 13,700 had a violent offense as the most serious charge for which they had been sentenced, 11,200 had a property offense as the most serious charge for which they had been sentenced, 92,000 had a drug offense as the most serious charge for which they had been sentenced, and 67,500 had a public order offense as the most serious charge for which they had been sentenced. Additionally, there were 1,400 for whom the charges were unknown or unspecified.

In 2016, there were 2,157,800 people behind bars in the US. This includes state and federal prisons as well as local and county jails. Of these, 188,300 people were federal prisoners, and 1,288,800 were state prisoners, and local jails held a total of 740,700 people. The incarceration rate in 2016 was 670 people per 100,000 US residents of all ages. The adult incarceration rate in 2016 was 870 people per 100,000 US residents aged 18 or older.

Click here for the complete data table for 2000 and 2007-2016.