Drug Addiction And Its Effects On The Brain

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,

The U.S prison population rose by 700% from 1970 to 2005. A rate far outpacing that of general population growth and crime rates.

This journal article discusses how the government has increased “mandatory sentencing” using “aggressive initiatives” for drug related crimes. Additionally, these government implemented sentencing guidelines have made the prison population grow

We approximately have 5 percent of the nation’s population, but we have over ¼ of the world’s prisoners. This number is still increasing at an alarming rate. Since the 1980’s the prison population has increased to 2.2 million men and women. In all of the world, we are the leaders in incarceration. Most of the people being arrested and charged are for drug related offenses. This significant increase in prisoners is due to the War on Drugs started by Ronald Regan.

Mass incarceration started in the 1970s. Since the eighties the system to maintain it, has been the War on Drugs officially declared by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 (p.5).

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

2 Drug arrests have; tripled since 1980. As a result, more than 31 million people have been ar-; rested for drug offenses since the drug war began. 3 To put the matter in per. spective, consider this: there are more people in prisons and jails today just;( for drug offenses than were incarcerated for all reasons in 1980.4 Nothing

Mass incarceration is the inhumane process by which people are cornered into the criminal “justice” system and recognized as criminals and felons. Criminals in the United States tend to receive longer sentences than those in other countries, even when they commit the same crimes. Furthermore, once these individuals are released

The War on Drugs continued well after President Ronald Regan left office. All of his predecessors continued to wage a war on street crime to win votes from the American people, Republicans and Democratic candidates alike began to dismantle social programing and implementing stiffer penalties toward convicted felons. Alexander reveals that by the turn of the twenty-first century 2 million people were cattle into penal systems and millions more were being discriminated against for employment,

     The deterrence and rehabilitation of prisons is clearly a purpose that is not being fulfilled. The actions of Earl Shriner and Reginald Muldrew are examples that show this. Claiming prisons as being effective, one might say that these are just isolated cases. In 1993, fifty-three percent of prisoners released were reconvicted within two years (Reducing).

than good. The main reason for this is that when a offender is sentenced to prison, they

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

During the Ford and Carter administrations drug use began to rise. In 1979 illicit drug

Since 1982, there has been a 160 increase in inmate population. One can only imagine what that number is today. Most of this increase is attributed to drug violators, such as marijuana dealers and buyers. Sadly, this number will only continue to rise (Potter 1998).

The drug war has dramatically affected the number of imprisoned Americans, as well as its prisons. According to DrugSense.Org, 1,576,339 people have been arrested for drug law offenses this year alone. And out of those, 9,261 have been incarcerated. As for marijuana offenses, 747,183 people have been detained. In fact, most of the non-violent offenders sitting in state, local and federal prisons