Drug Addiction And Incarceration Research

The ponderance that Brain = Behavior and the inherent ramifications of such proves no more fascinating than when addressed in the context of "Addiction and the Brain". Essential to consider is:

In most cases, one of the main objectives of courts and the sentences they impose is that of rehabilitation. This is evidenced through a growing move in favour of a more holistic approach to justice, trying to address the issues which may have led to the crime, rather than just punishing the end result. One of the prime examples of this therapeutic approach to justice is the introduction of the Drug Court. Governed by the Drug Court Act 1998, the Drug court has both Local court and District court jurisdiction, and seeks to target the causes of drug-related criminal behaviour. It achieves this by ensuring that those who go through it receive treatment for their addictions, thereby reducing their propensity to reoffend, as many crimes are motivated by the need to satisfy addictions.

This research paper will evaluate the biological aspects of addictive substance or behavior and how it affects the brain and organs. Biological aspects include dopamine levels that are replaced in the brain due to the reward system being overtaken and the absorption rate of the drug once it is ingested will be discussed. The biological aspects are extensive and permanent if the individual does not get the help they need. Furthermore the clinical issues of addictive substance or behavior will be discussed along with medical treatments and ethical issues. This includes treatments such as counseling

To be more specific, incarceration for crimes relating to drug or drug-use currently, “account[s] for more than half of all the charges levied against prisoners” (Dual Diagnosis). It is obvious that the punishment of mandatory sentencing does nothing to benefit drug users or the society they re-enter into as this statistic proves to be re-occurring every year. Instead, the goal of the criminal justice system and federal prisons should be mandatory supervised rehabilitation and treatment of individuals with their drug addiction, a required vocational based treatment program that goes along with their jail sentence time, and after sentence programs and checkups. All which would be mandated by a drug court system

The authors showed that with the growing criteria for offenders to be submitted to drug programs caused a “widening net” effect. This effect causes many offenders who would have needed help with their addicted fall-through and are incarcerated. These individuals then contribute to the growing population of prisons and jails. I agree with the author’s idea to fix this problem by creating more drug court programs with will allow more offenders to filter through to get help. Another fix for drug courts is to widen the restrictions of offenders and allow more addicted offenders into the drug courts. This also will allow numerous offenders to get the help that they need and hopefully not

In the United States, the rise in both illicit drug and alcohol abuse is continuing at an alarming rate. In 2009 alone, the United States saw 23.5 million people over the age of 12 needing treatment for drug or alcohol abuse (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2011). Per the Drug Enforcement Administration, in the same year (2009), almost 32,000 arrests on drug related charges were carried out (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2015). Even with the threat of prison time, and most federal prisons being filled with inmates on drug and alcohol related charges, 46.4% in 2016 the use and abuse of these substances is still on the rise (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016). Because of this, and the seemingly ineffective incarceration system, the call for

There needs to be a change in the criminal justice system. Convicted felons who are charged with any drug felony should not be put into jail or prison because it doesn’t help solve the problem. Rudy Haapanen states, “It is now generally agreed that the criminal justice system fails to rehabilitate offenders, to make them less likely to commit criminal acts as a result of treatment or training; that the system fails to deter potential offenders, to make then less likely to commit criminal acts out of fear of penal sanctions”. In this paper I will discuss drug use in the population, drug dealers, drugs and regulations. I will discuss drug use in the population so that you will see

Over the last few decades, the American criminal justice system has seen an increase in the amount of drug offenses being committed. While the number of drug offenses have increased, the amount of resources for addicts who are in prison have not. Although it has been made clear that drug abuse and crime are linked, the justice system has continued to punish offenders, rather than allowing them treatment. The lack of resources provided to prisoners who have issues with addiction has contributed to the cycle of recidivism in the American criminal justice system.

Drug addiction in this country takes a toll on every single aspect of productivity, healthcare costs and on the criminal justice system. The addict themselves suffer from impaired judgment, poor anger management and violent behavior which could all lead to crimes committed and being locked up (Drugabuse.org,2017). Treatment for the users offers an alternative to imprisonment. Drugabuse.org insists that treatment offers the best alternative for interrupting the drug use and criminal behavior patterns of the offenders (2014). Additionally, untreated drug offenders “are more likely to relapse into drug use and criminal behavior, jeopardizing public health and safety and taxing the criminal justice system.”

Substance abuse and incarceration have had a long, and some would say infamous relationship in the United States. According to May, Cooper, Soderstrom and Jarjoura (2009) (as cited by Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009) "more than one in three arrests in the United States are related to drug and alcohol use" (p. 669). Many have theorized why there is such a high incarceration rate among substance abusers.

Those incarcerated today are not given the chance to change their behavior patterns, especially when it is in regard to drug addiction. The criminal justice system in general does not consider drug abuse as anything but a crime and does not think about treating the disease of addiction in order to reduce or eliminate the crimes that come as a

It goes without saying that America faces a drug addiction that is beyond anything we could have ever anticipated. It is reported that an estimated 22.5 million Americans suffer from a dependency from a drug of some sort, whether it may be stimulants, depressants or hallucinogens (NIDA 2). However these victims of addiction are often demonized for their condition and are treated as criminals by the infallible U.S. Government. As a result there is a trend of 1 in every 100 adults will end up incarcerated for a drug related offense such as possession (Drug Policy Alliance 1). So instead of treating addiction itself, many politicians decide that

The drug problems in America will not change until a proactive approach is taken on drug issues. The first step would be convincing America that addiction is a disease that should be treated as an illness and not as a criminal act deserving punishment. In The Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, author Andre Cummings spoke about the war on drugs and the cost of prisons as it relates to our economy and the influx of incarcerations due to drug offenses. Cummings titled it a “mass incarceration,” he said “The United States has increased its incarceration rate in the last thirty years by more than an astonishing 335%” (Cummings, 2012) In a study from 1920-2006, “The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population. But it has almost 25% of the world’s prisoners.” (Cummings, 2012) The majority of those incarcerated are for drug offenses or something pertaining to the sale, manufacture, and/or distribution of an illegal

This paper highlights how substance abuse, the lack of treatment, and how it plays a role in continuous recidivism. I will focus on substance abuse and its impact on criminal involvement, discuss whom this problem effects, and elaborate on how this problem is being viewed. In the second half of this paper I will discuss what interventions are being used to address the substance abuse problem in the criminal justice system. Interventions will include: the establishment of drug courts, substance abuse treatment [both in and out of prison], and specialized intensive probation/parole.

Across the nation, figures substantiate there are more convicted felons in the prison system than any country globally. In the year 2006, the analytics confirm the data of 2.5 million and rising (Drug Addiction is an Illness, Not a Crime, 2015). Among the years between 2000 and 2006, the U.S. undergone the most significant leap in confinements ever. Another key point is the experts of the criminal justice system gives credit to the prison population bursting at the seams because of unforgiving sentencing policies, mainly those associated with illicit drugs and abuse (Drug Addiction is an Illness, Not a Crime, 2015). By all means, the majority of Americans believes drug addiction is not morally correct, more and more individuals are beginning