Drug Abuse In Federal Prisons

For many years, drugs have been the center of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Due to this widespread epidemic, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 with a campaign that promoted the prohibition of illicit substances and implemented policies to discourage the overall production, distribution, and consumption. The War on Drugs and the U.S. drug policy has experienced the most significant and complex challenges between criminal law and the values of today’s society. With implemented drug polices becoming much harsher over the years in order to reduce the overall misuse and abuse of drugs and a expanded federal budget, it has sparked a nation wide debate whether or not they have created more harm than good. When looking at the negative consequences of these policies not only has billions of dollars gone to waste, but the United States has also seen public health issues, mass incarceration, and violent drug related crime within the black market in which feeds our global demands and economy. With this failed approach for drug prohibition, there continues to be an increase in the overall production of illicit substances, high rate of violence, and an unfavorable impact to our nation.

The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world's population, our country houses nearly twenty-five percent of the world's reported prisoners. Currently there are approximately two million people in American prisons or jails. Since 1984 the prison population for drug offenders has risen from ten percent to now over thirty percent of the total prison population. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007; 95,446 for drug offenses. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates in 2005; 253,300 for drug offenses. Sixty percent of the drug offenders in prisons are nonviolent and were purely in prison because of drug offenses (Drug War Facts). The question then arises,

“Over 40 year ago president nixon, Declared Drug abuse public enemy number one, starting an unprecedented global Campaign, the war on drug.

In the past forty years, the United States has spent over $2.5 trillion dollars funding enforcement and prevention in the fight against drug use in America (Suddath). Despite the efforts made towards cracking down on drug smugglers, growers, and suppliers, statistics show that addiction rates have remained unchanged and the number of people using illegal drugs is increasing daily (Sledge). Regardless of attempts to stem the supply of drugs, the measure and quality of drugs goes up while the price goes down (Koebler). Now with the world’s highest incarceration rates and greatest illegal drug consumption (Sledge), the United States proves that the “war on drugs” is a war that is not being won.

When my audience hears “War on Drugs” they may assume it is a worthy endeavor because drug abuse is such a pervasive problem that affects many families. I must dispel the assumption that the “War on Drugs” dealt with the drug abuse problem or reduced drug sales. I can do this by demonstrating that there is plenty of evidence showing that the “War on Drugs” did not do what it set out to do and is therefore not an effective approach to the problem of drug trade and abuse. Additionally the imprisoning of citizens, even if it is done unjustly, does not reduce crime at comparable rates. Research from Harvard found that during the “War on Drugs” in state prisons there was a 66% increase in prison population but crime was only reduced by 2-5% and it cost the taxpayers 53 billion dollars (Coates, 2015). The fact the violent crime went up all through Nixon’s administration while he rallied for “Law & Order” and policing became more severe furthers this argument (Alexander, 2012). Four out five drug arrests are low-level possession charges as well, demonstrating that police policies aren’t dismantling the drug system just punishing addicts (Alexander, 2012). What’s more, drug abuse in America have remained stagnate and even increased in some instances even when billions of dollars have been pumped into the program (National

The War on Drugs is seen by many as an enormous factor of mass incarceration. There were more than 1.5 million drug arrests in the U.S. in 2014. More than 80% of them were for possession only (Drug Policy Alliance, 2017). 208,000 people are incarcerated for drug offenses in state prisons and 97,000 are incarcerated in federal prisons for the same reason. 1 in 5 incarcerated people are drug offenders (Peter Wagner, Bernadette Rabuy, 2017). According to Politifact, “The state and federal prison population remained fairly stable through the early 1970s, until the war on drugs began. Since then, it has increased sharply every year, particularly when Reagan expanded the policy effort in the 1980s, until about 2010…. In 1980, about 41,000 people were incarcerated for drug crimes, according to the Sentencing Project. In 2014, that number was about 488,400 — a 1,000 percent increase.” Even other factors, like

The War on Drugs is one cause for the mass incarceration that has become apparent within the United States. This refers to a drastic amount of people being imprisoned for mainly non-violent crime (“Mass Incarceration” 2016). In addition to people who are not an immediate threat to society being locked up for a substantial duration of time, the economic consequences are costing states and taxpayers millions of dollars. Specifically, every one in five people incarcerated is in prison due to some

Longer sentences has been a major cause of mass incarceration. Thus, changing how governments respond to all crime, not just drug crime, is critical to reducing the size of prison

The United States incarcerates more people, per capita, than any other nation in the entire world. State and local prisons and jails account for about 80% of incarcerations. Although crime rates have decreased since the 1990s, incarceration rates have soared. According to a recent Prison Policy Initiative publication, approximately 2.3 million people are currently “locked up” in the United States. Of these 2.3 million people, 1 in 5 are locked up for a drug related offense. Statistics show that prisoners and felons imprisoned for drug related crimes are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. The mass incarceration issue in the United States derives from the many arrests associated with these “offenses” regarding drugs and the war on drugs.

Incarceration rates in the United States have exploded due to the convictions for drug offenses. Today there are half a million in prison or jail due to a drug offense, while in 1980 there were only 41,100. They have tripled since 1980. The war on drugs has contributed the most to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color, most of them African-Americans. The drug war is aimed to catch the big-time dealers, but the majority of the people arrested are not charged with serious offenses, and most of the people who are in prison today for drug arrests, have no history of violence or selling activity. The war on drugs is also aimed to catch dangerous drugs, however nearly 80 percent of

According to the Department of Justice, in 2011, 48 percent of the all federal prisoners were incarcerated for drug crimes. Of those sentenced for these drug related crimes, nearly 58 percent were black or hispanic; however, these two groups make up only around 30 percent of the total population of the United States. Overly harsh consequences of drug convictions have helped lead to a 500 percent growth of the current incarcerated population over the past 40 years. This mass incarceration costs the average American about $260 per year on corrections, resulting in the country's annual $80 billion price tag. This so called "War on Drugs" is not how the American justice system should be handling cases of drug crimes. As said by Quigley: “We must never confuse law and

In the United States the prison population has increased from 300,000 in 1972 to 2.2 million

Reforms in prevention programs and increase in law enforcement have all come at the cost of tax payers. The Drug Policy Alliance estimates that since the War on Drugs started three decades ago Americans have paid about one trillion dollars toward the campaign (Sledge 1). The only change the country has seen is a five-hundred percent increase in the incarcerated population (Carroll 1). In reality, it has seemed that the US government has profited off of the money of taxpayers by dealing with private prisons. Today nearly

Drugs legalization is likely to be beneficial for the government by reducing the funds of drug law enforcement. Legalizing drugs can decrease the amount of criminal activity, which probably leads to the less expenditure on salary and other assets by the curtailment of police resources. According to Miron and Zweibel (1995), in the United State in 1993, there was sixty percent of the seventy-seven thousand federal detainees imprisoned for drug-related criminal acts (cited in Cussen & Block, 2000). As a result, this possibly caused not only the increase of the tax dollars consumed in the drug wars but also the rise of police resources. In addition, while US government expended more than $20 billion annually on the war on drugs (reported by U.S

Moreover in a recent study of prisoners who have committed crimes like theft, robbery and burglary the results have shown that 33% of those crimes have been made in order to purchase drugs. In addition, these criminals are responsible for the 75% of all robberies, thefts and burglaries. Much research shows that when narcotics are cheap the rates of the drug related crimes decrease. Moreover, the legalization of marijuana will reduce the problem of overcrowded prisons and the numerous accusations against drug users. As it is referred by Nadelmann the U.S. national costs from 1981 to 1987 for law enforcements against drugs tripled from lower than 1 billion per year to 3 billions. In 1988 this amount was 6 billion. Moreover in 1986 local authorities spend 5 billion on anti-drug activities. Therefore in federal prisons the numbers of prisoners count for 33% of the 50.000 total cases, while prisoners for similar crimes in state prisons are 30.000. A similar situation takes place in courts, from the 583.000 cases the 135.000 are related to drug crimes. The costs for keeping in prisons all these people have become a tremendous amount. Despite of the money the criminality, neither the citizens nor the drug lords have felt no change. Today the annual arrests for violation of drug laws are more or less 750.000 in US. In particular, 75% of these are done by citizens who just possess small quantities for personal use. In most of the times the