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Prison poulation research paper
Drug control policy us
Essays on prisons
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In the United States, the amount of arrests for Drug possession, and sales have steadily increased. In 2002 around 1.5 million people were incarcerated for drug related crimes. According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “In 2007 the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports estimated that there were about 1,841,200 state and local arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States.” (BJS) Based on these statistics, it is obvious that the number of people being put in jail for these crimes, is not going down. This can be attributed to the fact that when these people are released, they go right back onto drugs. In a study done by Temple university it was found that, “Nearly half of all state prisoners
As offenders are diverted to community residential treatment centers, work release programs and study release centers, the system sees a decrease or stabilization of the jail population. While the alleviation of overcrowding is a benefit it is not the only purpose of diversion. A large majority of crimes are committed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Studies have shown that more than half of all individuals arrested in the United States will test positive for illegal substances (NCVC, 2008). Efforts to reduce crime through incarceration usually fail because incarceration does not address the main problem, the offender’s substance abuse.
The novel “High Price” by Dr. Carl Hart, discusses Dr. Harts personal story growing up around poverty, drugs, and turning his life around to better himself. The text states “The U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics examined the connections between drugs and crime in prisoners, analyzing data from 1997 to 2004. It found that only a third of state prisoners committed their crimes under the influence of drugs and only around the same proportion were addicted” (110). Drugs have proven time and time again to influence prisoners to do wrong, especially when they’ve become addicted to the drugs they’ve allowed their body to consume.
Mandatory minimums for controlled substances were first implemented in the 1980s as a countermeasure for the hysteria that surrounded drugs in the era (“A Brief History,” 2014). The common belief was that stiff penalties discouraged people from using drugs and enhanced public safety (“A Brief History,” 2014). That theory, however, was proven false and rather than less illegal drug activity, there are simply more people incarcerated. Studies show that over half of federal prisoners currently incarcerated are there on drug charges, a 116 percent percentage rise since 1970 (Miles, 2014). Mass incarceration is an ever growing issue in the United States and is the result of policies that support the large scale use of imprisonment on
In the New York Times article, “Safety and Justice Complement Each Other,” by Glenn E. Martin, the author informs, “The Vera Institute for Justice found a 36 percent recidivism rate for individuals who had completed alternative drug programs in New York City, compared with 54 sentenced to prison, jail, probation or time served.” Alternative programs are more likely to inhibit future criminal acts, while incarceration seems to lack long-lasting effects on individuals. In continuance, the author adds that 3 percent of treatment participants were rearrested for violent crimes, while 6 percent of untreated criminals were rearrested for violent crimes. Diversion programs are able to treat one’s motivation for their criminal acts, rather than assuming that illegal habits will go away with time. Instead of sending nonviolent offenders to jail, legislators should consider introducing practical
There are individuals who oppose the use of drug courts. These people argue that by letting drug offenders avoid incarceration the justice system is doing nothing more than giving offenders an easier punishment for their crimes. Some people feel that over the long term treatment will cost more than sending the offender to prison to pay their debt to society. There are those that feel that treatment not wa...
Drug use and abuse is as old as mankind itself. Human beings have always had a desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, stimulated, or euphoric. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 B.C. in China. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the active substances in drugs were extracted. There was a time in history when some of these newly discovered substances, such as morphine, laudanum, cocaine, were completely unregulated and prescribed freely by physicians for a wide variety of ailments.
The Judiciary Branch of the United States government is responsible for interpreting the law. Those involved with this branch determine the meaning of the laws and decide what to do with those who break them. Because of a drug movement that took place through the 1980s, the courts have severely punished those who break laws associated to drugs; Congress is now trying to step in to change the way the Judiciary Branch is forced to punish such criminals. Congress has been busy the past couple of years evaluating the proper sentencing of those convicted of drug crimes. Many men and women of Congress are joining forces in an attempt to come up with a solution to propose as an amendment. Our elected leaders believe the need for the reform of drug crimes is due because of the number of cases and number of years those convicted are spending in prisons. Because of the drug wars that took place in the United States, the minimum sentence has been set so high today. Drug reform is needed in the United States, and those convicted of drug crimes with improper sentences need to have their sentence reduced. 1
Drug violators are a major cause of extreme overcrowding in US prisons. In 1992, 59,000 inmates were added to make a record setting 833,600 inmates nationwide (Rosenthal 1996). A high percentage of these prisoners were serving time because of drug related incid...
Past and Current Trends of Drug Abuse in the United States. Drug abuse has changed over the years due to the trends that Americans face from the encouragement of different cultures. The abuse of substances creates many health problems. The following will discuss the past and current trends in drug use and the effects these drugs have on the health of the individuals who abuse the drugs. The use of cocaine in the United States has declined over the last twenty years, while the use of crack has increased.
The drug control policy of the United States has always been a subject of debate. From Prohibition in the early 1930’s to the current debate over the legalization of marijuana, drugs have always been near the top of the government’s agenda. Drug use affects every part of our society. It strains our economy, our healthcare, our criminal justice systems, and it endangers the futures of young people. In order to support a public health approach to drug control, the Obama administration has committed over $10 billion to drug education programs and support for expanding access to drug treatment for addicts (Office). The United States should commit more government resources to protect against illegal use of drugs by youths and provide help for recovering addicts.
...lling inmate population, legislation and courts will control it for the Department of Corrections which has negative effects on the public safety because dangerous criminals are released. Solutions to keep incarceration numbers down, reduce the number going in, the two ways to make that happen are “to eliminate mandatory sentencing and eliminate revocations of probation and parole” (Clear, T. R., & Austin, J. 2009). Clear goes further and explains that the reason for prison growth is “the reduction in the use of probation as a sentence for people convicted of felonies, especially drug crimes”. In short, the laws that mandate mandatory prison sentence for drug offenses need to be changed to probation, “Before laws mandating prison sentences in the U.S. prison population, about six percent, they are now about twenty percent” Clear, T. R., & Austin, J. (2009).
Property crimes will go down outstandingly due to anyone addicted to drugs. Citizens will be detained in a forced rehabilitation because they can not break and enter into houses to rob expensive items that they can sell and buy more drugs to support their habit.” The most common perpetrators to break and enter into houses to support their drug habit are the same people who reside in the same neighborhood as the victim” (Goldstein,johnson n.pag). Ten percent of homicides and assaults nationwide were drug related (hardwood n.pag). With the decriminalization of drugs we will see less deaths caused by conflict between two dealers. For example a thirty-nine-year-old women was killed by a stray bullet on east Manhattan between two drug dealers (new York post n.pag).
Placing individuals in prison to kick their drug habit is not going to work because prison isn’t a drug-free place. When it comes to the drug trade in prison, it’s as active as the one outside prison walls (Sack, 2014). The drug trade in prison is run by gangs and in California, they are the number one cause of prison violence (“Drugs Inside,” 2010). The hard truth is selling drugs is prison is ten times more profitable than selling them on the streets (Shively, 2015) The use of needles to take drugs in prison is a major factor in the spread of disease (Kirchner, 2015). Drugs being brought into prison leads to behavior problems, fights, riots, and even deaths (Shively, 2015). In an Ohio prison, dozens of inmates fought over a package of drugs that had been dropped over the prison walls by a drone (Kirchner, 2015). Drones are not the only way drugs make their way into prisons. Packets can be launched over walls with paintball guns and homemade launchers know as, “spud guns” (“Drugs Inside,” 2010). Drugs can be left in bathrooms where inmates clean, and red heroin can even replace the pimento in an olive. Prison gangs also put
One of the most prevalent misconceptions, Benson and Rasmussen, contend is the notion that a large percentage of drug users commit nondrug crimes, what might be called the “drugs-cause-crime” assumption implicit in the government’s drug-war strategy. If true, then an effective crackdown on drug use would reduce nondrug crime rates.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The link between drug use and crime is not a new one. For more than twenty years, both the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Justice have funded many studies to try to better understand the connection. One such study was done in Baltimore on heroin users. This study found high rates of criminality among users during periods of active drug use, and much lower rates during periods of nonuse (Ball et al. 1983, pp.119-142). A large number of people who abuse drugs come into contact with the criminal justice system when they are sent to jail or to other correctional facilities. The criminal justice system is flooded with substance abusers. The need for expanding drug abuse treatment for this group of people was recognized in the Crime Act of 1994, which for the first time provided substantial resources for federal and state jurisdictions. In this paper, I will argue that using therapeutic communities in prisons will reduce the recidivism rates among people who have been released from prison. I am going to use the general theory of crime, which is based on self-control, to help rationalize using federal tax dollars to fund these therapeutic communities in prisons. I feel that if we teach these prisoners some self-control and alternative lifestyles that we can keep them from reentering the prisons once they get out. I am also going to describe some of today’s programs that have proven to be very effective. Gottfredson and Hirschi developed the general theory of crime.