2011 arrest statistics from the FBI
Just discovered this article might not be quite accurate. See post #1. It's still pretty true but possibly not quite accurate.
The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,531,251 arrests), larceny-theft (estimated at 1,264,986), and driving under the influence (estimated at 1,215,077),” the FBI report notes. Looking at the numbers broken down, however, one can see that marijuana possession alone accounts for a staggering 43.3 percent of drug-related arrests.
As Radley Balko rightly points out in HuffPo, although not every arrest leads to a charge or a conviction, the effects can still be ruinous:
Arrests can be damaging, even if they never result in criminal charges. They generally go on your criminal record, which can be checked each time you apply for a job, housing, or credit. An arrest can also be a barrier to your ability to adopt, obtain some types of professional licenses, and obtain a visa or passport. And of course an arrest also comes with some social stigma.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
From the FBI:
Overview
Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 12,408,899 arrests in 2011. Of these arrests, 534,704 were for violent crimes, and 1,639,883 were for property crimes. (Note: the UCR Program does not collect data on citations for traffic violations.)...
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested
US population (2012) was 313,900,000, one-25th of that is 12,556,000. So the numbers are about right but the number of arrests is not going to be the same thing as the number of unique people arrested; many arrests would be for the same person.
Still it's a shocking figure.
But that was after I wrote my reply.
Maybe Salon will update, too.
of course, maybe they just execute more people, but per capita, we have a larger prison population than China.
Most of those arrests were for drug law violations.
The law regarding cannabis and other psychotropics enacted by Congress and overseen by the DEA are political, not scientific, in nature and are the result of Nixon's desire to punish his political enemies.
Therefore, those imprisoned for those substances are political, not criminal prisoners, since the law that made such things criminal was entirely political in nature.
Nice job, conservatives! 
