Nonviolent offenders continue to take up room in prisons and cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually. Incarceration continues to be used as a means of deterrence, although it has not been shown to be effective for these offenders.  The incarceration of nonviolent offenders may lead to the individual becoming a hardened criminal as they suffer through the negative effects and consequences of prisons.   Mental illnesses and physical and sexual assault are all associated with prisons.  In addition, the criminal stigma makes it difficult for the nonviolent offender to reintegrate with the community upon prison release.  
The mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders, specifically those with drug related convictions is an abuse of the United States penal system. The poor are criminalized; the diseased are incarcerated, while the rich are empowered.  The drug war is a social war, a war on morality.  Offenders are best served through rehabilitative sentences, rather than through punitive measures.  Realistically, drug abuse will never be eliminated.  However, we can attempt to help these individuals with their addictions through rehabilitative means, rather than incarcerating them and isolating them from the rest of their community.  A reformation of community corrections could aid in decreasing the overcrowding of prisons and help offenders effectively reintegrate back into their communities.  
	The prison population has been overpopulated for many years and the United States continues to have the highest incarceration rate in the entire world.  This can be alleviated through diversion techniques and community sentencing.  This would benefit juveniles and offenders with addictions in particular by giving them an opportunity for treatment and eradicate their criminal behaviors.  Many states have already begun the process of utilizing rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders in place of incarceration.  This is an increasingly popular trend as overpopulation continues to be a costly problem at state and federal levels. 
	As the prison population continues to grow and as the drug war continues to prove to be a failure, we must develop new techniques in preventing recidivism and decreasing costs.  These individuals unnecessarily clog the criminal justice system and our prisons and change must occur.  For this to take place, a shift in the goal of the criminal justice system from punitive to rehabilitative may be necessary.  
