Drug Offenders in Federal Prison: Estimates of Characteristics Based on Linked Data

"Publicly available BOP datasets do not include information about prisoners’ criminal history, offense details, and sentencing decisions, making it difficult to assess the criminal background of the offenders and the nature of their offenses. This report uses a new dataset that links the BOP population at fiscal yearend 2012 (i.e., stock population), with sentencing information from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) to describe the federal prison population in greater detail. The dataset includes the 94,678 sentenced offenders in federal prison whose most serious offense was drug-related, who were serving time on a new U.S. district court commitment, and who had valid links to USSC data. Of these, almost all were drug trafficking offenders, while the remainder were sentenced for other drug offenses, primarily possession..."
Drug offenders