BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Louisiana has lead the country in incarceration rates since 2020. The majority of those incarcerated are on charges of drug trafficking, weapons and fraud.

According to a report, drug trafficking is the leading sentence suspects are arrested for. About 38% of arrests in Louisiana are drug-related. Drug trafficking includes making, selling and transporting controlled substances.

Gun charges are the second-largest with 21% of arrests, and the third largest offense is fraud/embezzlement/theft with 20%.

During the 2023 Legislative Session, lawmakers decided to increase the penalty for dealing with one of the leading deadliest drugs, fentanyl. In 2022, over 1,000 Louisiana residents died from the drug.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome started a violence reduction initiative to prevent gun violence throughout East Baton Rouge. House Bill 331 also prohibits the possession of “machine guns.”