According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Web site (as of Sept. 4, 2004), the total federal inmate population is 180,318.

About 54 percent of that population are drug felons.

The total cost for each prisoner was $61 per day; for the entire population, almost $11 million a day or $4 billion a year.

It is predicted that by 2010 there will be more than 216,000 individuals serving time in federal prisons.

Thirty years ago, the prison population was less than 200,000. But mandatory sentencing policies for drug offenses have driven the prison population across the nation to a staggering 1.4 million.