Drugs And Drugs Essay

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,

If eligible, families receive services such as x-rays, doctor visits, diagnostic testing, and etc, for free or may be required to pay a reduced amount of the bill. The welfare system has changed over the year from a long-term to short-term assistance in order to encourage independency. Not only does the tax funded welfare programs provide a means of distributing the wealth across the country, but also control poverty in America and improve the standard of living for low-income families.

The welfare systems are based on the principle of public responsibility on equitable wealth distribution and equality of opportunities to citizens who are unable to afford minimal levels of quality and good life, through provision of universal education programs, health care and subsidised housing. In most of the states, welfare systems are not used in the right manner they are intended to. Although the systems are meant to reduce the poverty level and at least assists individuals to get decent jobs, many recipients develops news ways every year to prolong their dependency in the system. Statistics show that women easily abuse the welfare system by simply having more children each year since this means that more money will come in their mails. Most of the recipients on welfare are able to work

The process of drug testing individuals who are applying or receiving welfare benefits has recently become the focus of a widely spread controversy. Florida, the first state to pass the law, now requires all individuals applying for public assistance to undergo drug testing. The state of Kentucky, among others, have considered following this trend. State lawmakers hope to prevent the squandering of taxpayer dollars on drugs by proposing similar guidelines. Alabama’s states representative Kerry Rich clearly affirmed his state’s position on the matter, “I don’t think the taxpayers should have to help fund somebody’s drug habit” (qtd. in Time).

In a way, one could view this as a way that the system is being cheated. According to Malcolm Wiener, professor of Social Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, the nation's 3.7 million welfare families confront an urgent problem: they do not get enough money from welfare to pay their bills. Nor can most single mothers earn enough to cover their expenses. The only way most welfare recipients can keep their families together is to combine work and welfare. Yet if they report that they are working, the welfare department will soon reduce their checks by almost the full amount of their earnings, leaving them as desperate as before. The only way most recipients can make ends meet, therefore, is to supplement their welfare checks without telling the welfare department that they are working.

The welfare system in the United States is inadequate to what the American people need. Welfare is defined as a government program that supports low income families. These programs are designed to provide a safety net to protect people from poverty. There are thirteen different welfare programs that will help assist people by providing necessities like food, and housing.

Welfare is intended for families or individuals that are in need of assistance with no or little income. For those who do not know, Welfare funds come from hard working individuals that are required to pay taxes. Now we wonder, are the tax payers’ hard earned money going to the right deserving recipients? Welfare fraud is on the rise in this country. Many are taking advantage of the system taking away the help that is meant for people that truly needed help to provide for their families or people that need assistance until they can stand on their own feet. Statistics clearly show that “785,000 to 1.2 million families are illegally receiving welfare benefits. At the average rate of $11,500 per year, this means taxpayers are being

In today’s society many people are skeptical on the use of welfare, in the United States alone 35.4% people are on welfare. Most people may think welfare can be used to help people such as people who are ineligible to work or the homeless who don’t have a job but need help for the time being. Thinking about it from another view welfare can be used as a bad thing such as buying drugs. As of 2015 13 states can drug test welfare recipients and 19 are considering.

In Leslie Reynolds’ “Misuse of Welfare in American Low Class Citizens,” she employs various logical methods to support her argument that welfare in the United States is being misused by our citizens and something must be done to prevent the welfare misuse. Reynolds relies on definition, facts, statistics, personal and public experience, and also tries to find different solutions for this heavily impacted issue. Reynolds believes something should be done to prevent the many low class recipients from abusing and misusing the welfare system. For example, Reynolds suggests the government could restart the welfare system, have stricter guidelines, and have more monitoring of the system itself to prevent our money being misled. Reynolds blends her

Public welfare is the term which stands for the variety of tax-supported programs that provide cash assistance or services to residents who are not able to financially take care of themselves (Hansan, 2011). This program was started in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. There are several types of welfare including health care, food stamps, child care assistance, cash aid, and housing assistance. Medicaid is considered to be one of the welfare programs; it is a medical care that provides cash income assistance for the poor (“Medicaid”, 2002). Recipients must meet multiple requirements that are established prior to receiving aid. The requirements include low income, child dependency, family size, and any crisis situation such as pregnancy, unemployment, and medical emergencies (Welfare Information, n.d.). As of today, some states require welfare recipients to get drug tested when applying for financial benefits. Arguments arose whether the test should take place or not. Many people believe that the government should not drug test welfare recipients because unpleasant consequences occur. Not only does drug testing recipients create chaos in the U.S. bureaucratic system, it also labels the recipients, creating stigma and deviance especially if the test comes out positive. Welfare recipients are being discriminated by society and this may lead to knowledge gaps between the underclass and other social classes which creates a caste system. Many negative effects take place as

The clip from Claudine displayed stereotypes that welfare is for single black women who have multiple kids and no husband. Also, in Cinderella Man, if you were a white person receiving welfare it was a disgrace and you were looked down upon or disowned. Holly wood reflects public assistant recipients by making people feel ‘unworthy, undeserving, or like a charity case’. For instance in Cinderella Man, he literally had to beg the ‘worthy’ or rich people for money to help cover the rest of his bills. Recipients may feel dependent on a system that cares nothing for their safety and security. Welfare can reflect recipient view of work. They may feel if they work too hard, they were be forced to be independent and provide everything (food, shelter, affordable home) on own, therefore no longer receiving

Welfare is the savior to many poor and helpless families in our country today, providing health care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing assistance to those who can’t afford it. Saving the lives of countless people, and most of all, children every year. The disclaimer? The United States Welfare Program is severely abused and misused by millions of lazy, incompetent, and very capable individuals daily.

When people are referring the “welfare”, they are referring to a number of government assistant programs that are provided to help struggling Americans with poverty (Johnson). One common myth that is actually very prominent today is that illegal immigrant come over from other countries and are treated better than United States citizens such as easily receiving government assistance (Johnson). This is not true and there is no way it could be true because even United States citizens have to prove their identity. Our speaker today, Monica Drake said that the only way any illegal immigrant can get any type of assistance is if they have a child but still then their child is the one benefitting from the Medicaid and it is only for a short 48 hours. The next myth that really caught my eye was the one that people are only using government assistance to upkeep their drug habits. Tennessee has recently started drug testing their applicants and found out that less than 1% of the applicants are using the system for drug habits (Johnson). I will have to admit that I too had this stereotype in my head at one time. This statistic really stuck out to me because it is such as small number of people abusing the system compared to the number that people THINK are abusing

First of all, people who are on welfare usually do become dependent on assistance because it gives them an incentive to avoid work. Many generations of families have been living on welfare assistance and have not made any reasonable efforts to prosper within our society. According to the article Welfare in the United States, “Some people get on welfare because they were laid off or relocated, but whatever the reason, some get stuck on welfare much longer than necessary and no one has the ability to remove them” (Redyns, 2007). Welfare was designed to give a boost to the poor, and help struggling families make it through the year,

The majority of people on welfare can easily be classified into two categories. The first categorical term covered is called “rescue welfare” (). The group of people in this category consists of Americans who have had a healthy and steady job all while paying their taxes and insurance without problem. The reason these people enter into the welfare