Clearly, we are running out of room to house our inmates.  How can this be solved?  Do we build more prisons in order to facilitate the growing population of nonviolent offenders?  A shortage of prisons at federal and state levels had called for action in either building additional facilities in order to house offenders or taking action in decreasing the prison population. As more prisons are becoming privatized, companies seeking financial gain will meet the high demand necessary to house all of these offenders when federal and state governments are unable to do so.  

The war on drugs is the tough on crime approach to taking illicit drugs off the street and criminalizing drug behaviors.  It reached its peak during the 1980’s at the height of the crack cocaine campaign.  The media helped to influence and cultivate the American public’s growing aversion to drug culture and the indoctrination of a societal standard of morality.  It has been criticized as misguided and a waste of federal funds as more and more of United States prison cells are being occupied by drug offenders.  In fact, over 1 million Americans each year are arrested for drug offenses. Individuals being convicted of crimes that were frequently described as victimless led to the incarceration of nonviolent offenders with the drug war as a catalyst.
This increase has no correlation with a rise in crime. It mainly reflected changes in the correctional policies that determine who goes to prison and for how long. In particular, it had very much to do with the war on drugs.  As Sasha Abramsky’s book “Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation” explains, the war on drugs law and mandatory sentences was first put into action in the 1980s, which included the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and the Omnibus Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. Following the 1980’s, the war on drugs began to affect the political world.  Presidential nominees adopted a tough on crime approach for political gain, thus increasing the general public’s fear and concerns to drug abuse.  As elections grew near, candidates took the opportunity to showcase their tough on crime.   As Richard Nixon entered the presidential primaries in his campaign during the late 60’s, he singled out drugs as his main political issue.  He described drugs as a plague to America’s youth and called for a return to law and order.  This led to a nationwide drug panic and a rally of public support, of which was facilitated by the media.  Throughout his presidency, Nixon used the issue of drugs as a method of political potential, building anti-drug bureaus aimed at keeping the drug war intact and keeping the American people fearful of the harmful effects of drugs. 
