America, the beautiful.  The land of hopes, dreams, and opportunity.   It’s also the country with the highest prison population in the entire world. The United States prison population currently boasts over 2.3 million inmates, of which sixty percent are nonviolent offenders.  In fact, the United States holds more than 25% of the entire world’s prison population, even though it embodies just 5% of the world population overall.
 More and more of this extraordinary population are becoming nonviolent offenders due to tough on crime mandates, such as mandatory sentencing, that were spearheaded during the 1980’s. These individuals congest state prisons, necessitating the use of more resources, time, and funding.   In fact, the rate of nonviolent offenders is increasing at a pace that is remarkably faster than the rate of violent offenders. For this reason, violent offenders are being released from prisons earlier in order to make room for nonviolent offenders. 
Why are these crimes committed?  Long live the American Dream.  We all aspire to attain a certain standard of ideals which portray success that has been thrust upon the American citizen.  Each individual’s reasoning for committing a criminal act may differ, even if the offense is the same.  Nonviolent crimes are frequently committed in order to attain economic success or because of a drug addiction or abuse. Juvenile delinquency is also linked to nonviolent crime and may be a result of gang-related activity or peer pressure.
The incarceration of nonviolent offenders has been heavily argued by criminologists and legislators. While some claim that the incarceration of nonviolent offenders serves as an effective deterrent, others argue that it is an irresponsible use of resources and that these types of offenders would be best suited serving their sentence in the community.  Recently, many states have been introducing reduced sentences and early releases for nonviolent offenders, in efforts to clean out the criminal justice system and reduce crowding in state prisons.  Either way, nonviolent offenders in prisons is an important subject and an issue that does not seem to have an end in sight.

So what is a nonviolent crime?  Nonviolent crimes include those which lack physical force or pain induced to other individuals.  A large majority of offenders convicted of a nonviolent crime in today’s criminal justice system are the result of the war on drugs and the tough on crime approach that followed.  Today, nonviolent drug offenders account for approximately one-fourth of all inmates in the United States prison population.
Types of Nonviolent crimes include drug trafficking, forgery, prostitution, and burgulary.  These are crimes that do not physically hurt other individuals and are usually punishable through a monetary fine and possibly incarceration.  In contrast, some examples of violent crimes include assault, murder, and rape.  However, just because an individual is convicted of a nonviolent crime does not mean that they have not committed a violent crime.  The role of plea bargaining has allowed the offender to escape a possible harsher punishment and lengthy trial, in addition to reducing the costs and blockage of the court system.  If an individual has committed both a violent and nonviolent crime, it is possible that they may only be charged with the nonviolent crime by taking a plea deal offered by a prosecutor.  Therefore, it is not to say that the individual is nonviolent, but solely the crime for which they are convicted.
