When it comes to people with drug addiction the amount of recidivism can be quite alarming. Statistics show that around 1.5 million people are arrested in the US each year for drug charges: of those 1.5 million, over three-fourths are repeat offenders. That’s about 1,155,000 people a year that have been incarcerated with a repeat offense. This makes the US the fourth highest in illegal drug addiction; although, with the way the US treats drug addiction this isn’t very surprising. The majority of people with drug charges are held for 40 months or less and most will be prematurely released with parole. Interestingly enough, in Portugal, where all drugs were decriminalized by 2001.
As crazy as it may seem--even though all drugs are considered
Yet, access to these services may be restricted, especially for those who are imprisoned. In Lamb's book, several women discuss their difficulty obtaining access to drug abuse treatment while they were in prison. Several said the lack of resources and insufficient support contributed to their ongoing battles with addiction. Increasing access to treatment programs is one way to combat the problem of substance misuse. Many people who are jailed battle addiction, and without the right care, they are prone to relapse.
On the state level the statistic isn’t nearly as high but still shocking to read as drug crimes alone are the cause for half of the rise in the states jail systems. There has been a 1,100 percent increase in the population of inmates at either a state or federal level serving time for drug charges. Alexander points out that 31 million people have been arrested for drug crimes since the beginning of the War on Drugs. I do wonder if this number is individual people as opposed to repeat offenders but either way, this large of a number clearly signifies another issue in the United States besides the massively disproportional population arrest rates, a drug problem that clearly has not been fixed. Instead of helping people in communities through community service or keeping tabs on them with probation we have been locking them into prisons at four times the rate we used
With multiple failed government attempts to end the war on drugs, it has only worked to create a damaged federal prison system. However, by making drug sales, possession, and use
Why we should incarcerate drug users Currently one of the less heated but still talked about debates is the issue of what we should do with those who have been caught using illegal substances. Some people say that we should be giving them rehab, and some say that they deserve to be in their. Both sides have their points, but the evidence points towards incarceration being a better option. The reason our judicial system incarcerates drug abusers are because enforcement will discourage drug use, it will keep them away from innocent people, and it will punish the addicts so they know not to do it again.
Most people in the United States each year go the prison and keep there for non-violent crime, such as drug related offenses. This issue has affected many family’s life for many years and caused the prisoners to deprive from many of their rights. Lacking the appropriate policies for keeping drug related offenses in prison has been a public health crisis and created a new addiction, like penchant for locking people up in prison. The author in this article “prison addiction: why mass incarceration policies must change.” discusses about lacking the appropriate policies for incarceration for non-violent drug related offenses.
They are less likely to return if low level drug offenders receive treatment during and after prison. Olson and Lurigion state ,"Drug addiction is a chronic relapse brain disease with biological, psychological, social and behavioral concomitants"(600). If a drug criminal is treated for his addiction, he/she will be less likely to commit crimes. The treatment has to be comprehensive and provide a wide range of treatment (Olsen and Lurigion (601) Many professions believe treatment is more effective than incarceration for several months.
The idea behind these program was to help treat the offenders for their substance abuse disorders while still holding them accountable for the crime that they had committed (Lutze & Wormer, 2013). Many studies have been conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of drug court programs across the country. In a qualitative study done by Gallagher 100 participants of the drug court program were examined. This study found that of the drug court participants, seventy-nine percent were not rearrested in the follow-up period. Twenty-one percent of those participants were rearrested (Gallagher, 2014).
Opioids is a big issue because Americans are addicted to drugs especially opioids. After a surgery doctors give patients opioids because they are a pain killer. After patients have been taking opioids they soon are not in pain anymore but they keep taking the pills because it makes their body feel relieved. People get addicted to this and can’t function without them.
government provides help to drug addicts, such as helping them find jobs and providing them with housing, instead of locking them up or punishing them, the cost of drug control in the United States will increase significantly. The most important reason for taking punishment is that the US government does not expect to gain economic benefits and support by providing help to drug addicts. On the contrary, they want to spend the least amount of money to reduce drug trade as effectively as possible. Let's imagine that when the US government punishes drug addicts, they only need to build a prison to isolate drug addicts, and hire some prison guards to watch them until they no longer crave drugs, or simply fine drug addicts. These are the most effective and cheapest means of arresting drugs.
Once someone is arrested and sent to prison, most of us think they have done their punishment and learned their lesson. Unfortunately, this is not the case most of the time. Once these inmates are released most of them end up re-offending and going back to prison, this is called recidivism. It looks follows the inmates three years after they are released and sees if they get reoffend and go back to prison with a new sentence. The Bureau of Justice did a survey to see how many offenders went back to prison after they were released.
The current system that incarcerates people over and over is unsustainable and does not lower the crime rate nor encourage prisoner reformation. When non-violent, first time offenders are incarcerated alongside violent repeat offenders, their chance of recidivating can be drastically altered by their experience in prison. Alternative sentencing for non-violent drug offenders could alleviate this problem, but many current laws hinder many possible solutions. Recently lawmakers have made attempts to lower the recidivism rates in America, for example the Second Chance Act helps aid prisoners returning into society after incarceration. The act allows states to appropriate money to communities to help provide services such as education, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, job corps services, and others to aid in offenders returning to society after incarceration (Conyers, 2013).
K’sani Vanterpool December 13, 2015 English12 PD 2 Mrs.Dawes Outline THESIS STATEMENT: Identifying sex offenders who return to the community is beneficial because it will reduce the likelihood of recidivism, deter potential offenders and protect members of the community. I Reduce the likelihood of recidivism A. Intensive supervisim B. Intensive rehabilitation programs II Deter Potential Offenders A. Risk of public embarrassment B. Fear of harsh sentences III Protect the members of the community A. Increases awareness B. Reduce the number of sex offenders Have you ever imagined yourself or one of your kids walking home and get raped? Would you feel safer knowing who in the neighborhood would commit these crimes?
isn’t the only thing people believe needs to change; the reasons for arrests have been criticized by many. America incarcerates more citizens for drug related crimes than any other place in the world. Of the roughly 200,000 in federal prison, 52% are being held for drug crimes and only 8% are for violent crimes, such as: murder, assault, and robbery (Waldman, 2013). Many believe that the “War on Drugs” must become less aggressive because of its large contribution to the prison population. The distribution of prisoners by race has also raised concern among Americans.
Background Drug problems have been around for thousands of years. According to the Drug Policy Alliance in 2017, “The first anti-opium laws in the 1870s were directed at Chinese immigrants. The first anti-cocaine laws, in the
This leads to the question of whether the justice system is doing an adequate job of dealing with drug addiction. Instead of incarcerating people for drug abuse, an alternative is treating victims by rehab and treatment. This paper will exam why treatment is the superior option for