The Nation - News from Feb. 1, 1988

Ninety-five percent of state prison inmates in 1986 were repeat offenders or were serving time for violent crimes, the government reported. Among the other 5%, about half were convicted drug traffickers or burglars, according to the study by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. The data, based on a survey of 13,700 inmates, showed the percentage of violent and repeat offenders among a nationwide state prison population of 450,000 to have remained about the same as the figures for 1979, the last time such a study was conducted. Thirty-five percent of the inmates in 1986 said they were under the influence of drugs at the time of the offense.