Drugs and Prisons, Drugs and Treatment

50% of the US Federal prison population (those held in Federal, not state, prisons), 95,800 people, are there due to a drug conviction. To be fair, the vast majority of those were trafficking offenses, including large-scale trafficking in things like methamphetamine, heroin, and similar, dangerously addictive drugs. But some are for simple possession of drugs on the Schedule of Controlled Substances.
Looking at our state prisons, the percentages there for possession or distribution are not quite as high as in the Federal system. However, state prison populations are, as a whole, a far greater number of individuals. At the state level 1/4 of all females in state prisons, and 15% of all males, are there due to drug convictions. As of 2014, 208,000 people. In addition, the majority of those entering prison for nonviolent offenses do so with a diagnosable drug addiction (whether it be to alcohol, cocaine, meth, or something else). Effective recovery programs are essentially nonexistent in prisons, to say nothing of jails, where many poor arrestees, unable to make bail, detox on the floor of overcrowded cells, with no medical intervention.