More and longer prison sentences for drug violators have fueled a massive increase in the U.S. prison population over the past two decades. A new government report on the bloated U.S. criminal justice system demonstrates that drug treatment, a low-priced and more effective alternative to incarceration strongly supported by the Drug Policy Alliance, is needed now more than ever.

The United States spent a record $167 billion on policing, corrections, and judicial and legal activities in 2001, according to the new report, released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a Department of Justice agency. Overall spending increased an astonishing 366% from 1982 to 2001, the last year for which data is available.

The study pegs the most dramatic spending increase on federal prisons, which saw spending rise from $541 million to nearly $5.2 billion, an 861% increase in just 20 years. That increase corresponds closely with a profile of federal prison inmates that found an 850% increase in federal incarcerations for drug law violations from 1980-1994. The majority of federal prison inmates are incarcerated for drug law violations.

While federal spending soared, state and local spending on policing and prisons also skyrocketed - during a time when states struggled under widening budget deficits. With states facing average budget deficits of $70 billion to $85 billion in 2004, many states have passed or are considering enacting policies that would shift nonviolent drug offenders from prison to drug treatment, which can help close deficits.