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Chapter SERVING TIME FOR
1 DRUG CRIMES

Prisons in the United States are fi lled with people who have vi-
olated drug laws. One in fi ve incarcerated people is locked up
for a drug offense, according to a March 2019 report from the
Prison Policy Initiative, a criminal justice public policy think tank.
In Pennsylvania, for instance, 13,708 people were incarcerated
for drug crimes as of December 31, 2017, a number that is 28.3
percent of the state’s total inmates. In Kentucky in January 2018,
4,713 people were incarcerated for drug crimes—20 percent of
the state’s inmate population. In all, about 198,000 drug offend-
ers were in state prisons in 2018.
In addition to state prisons, local jails and federal prisons also
house drug offenders. According to the Prison Policy Initiative’s
March 2019 report, local jails hold about thirty-fi ve thousand con-
victed drug offenders. An additional eighty-one thousand people
were serving time for drug crimes in federal prisons, according to
the report. Another few thousand are serving time in youth and
military correctional facilities.
Twenty-one-year-old Amanuel Hagos is one example of a
drug offender who is serving time in prison. In December 2017
Hagos was arrested and charged in Loveland, Colorado, with
felony drug possession with the intent to distribute and felony
drug possession with a weapon. He pleaded guilty to the charg-
es. In October 2018 a judge sentenced Hagos to serve sixteen
years in prison. At the sentencing hearing, the deputy district at-
torney characterized Hagos as having a recurring problem with

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