I think maybe Qadgop is being slightly conservatvie in his estimates(but then very high security prisons may well have a differant offender profile composition).
Where I work I would put the number of drug related offenders at least 60%.These may not be offences dircetly drug related, but could be offences comitted to obtain the wherewithall to purchase drugs.
In the UK we try to make imprisonment the last resort, konwing full well that probation is more likely to lead to reform.
By the time they arrive in jail, the prisoner will have gone through community service, they will have done probation, they may have done semi-secure living in hostels, and all those have failed.
Our population is going up, for a variety of reasons, but it is incredibly rare to get a first time offender, formerly holding down employment, in jail.
What is happening is that offenders have benefitted from a more considered sentencing policy and are now returning for longer and longer periods.
It is true that a large chunk of offenders have poor education, and few if any marketable skills, it would probably shock folk on this board to know just how low their intellectual abilities are, forget the idea of the ciminal mastermind, most of what they do is mean, petty and banal.
We have large teams of psychologists, drug workers, employment seekers and after release these agencies continue to work with ex-offenders, but they still keep on coming back.
When you consider just how much in money a junkie needs to maintain themselves, and the damage they cause getting it, it would be cheaper on the public, to keep them inside for good.
One thing I have noticed is that the younger the offender, the less well educated, serious offenders are starting out far younger than in recent times past, most have been at it since they were 10 or 11, and thats when formal schooling stopped.
There needs to be a more coercive education system to deal with them, truancy is a serious issue and probably has more to do with fuelling a nascent career in crime than most any other factor.
As for those actually in jail, they mostly tend to get fed up with the stress and uncertainty their lifestyle produces when they reach their late 20’s of 30’s but they will generally continue, since they have no other options, until they are arond 40 ish.
So one option might be to keep repeat serious offender inside until they are in their 40’s, another would be to have state run industries employing such people.
The state run industry would be attractive becasue it would solve the main problem that ex-offenders have, finding employment.
It could be made a condition of their freedom(licence) to stay in employment in the state run company for a set period, any behaviour that results in dismissal from that employment would result in immediate return to jail.
The terms of work within such companies would mean that offenders would have to do everything that any regula employee would have to do, turn up on time, meet performance criteria and all the rest, in return they would be paid a reasonable living wage.
The ex-offender would be expected to hold that job down depending on the terms set in a contract by the courts, and would be based upon the offence.
There is actually no reason why the state should operate such companies, I’m sure it would be possible to have profit making agencies to do this and I would envision the whole dovetailing into current employment withint prisons themselves.
I would also set no time limit on the sentence a prisoner would serve, the prisoner would have to complete their period of jail to become eligible for outside employment and if they could not hold down that job whilst under supervised freedom they would keep returning to jail to requalify until such time as they were able to hold down that job, thus they would only ever gain their full freedom by working for it.I
