Substance Abuse Response Paper

Currently, drug courts have been proven to be successful at reducing recidivism of offenders. In the United States there are about 120,000 people receiving help in order to rehabilitate them and to try to reduce the chances of recidivism (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2011). These programs require individuals to participate in the programs for a minimum of one year. During this year the individuals are required to appear in court and be drug tested at

Because convicted offenders tend to be locked up for longer periods than jail offenders, treatment possibilities in a prison setting are more far-reaching. The prison and treatment staff are in the best position to establish

Substance use and addiction are often the driving force responsible for placing these individuals into prison in the first place. Authors Annelle B. Primm et al. (2005) reported, “An increased portion of the federal criminal caseload was accounted for by drug prosecutions between 1982 and 1999 (21-236%) while 70% of jail inmates during 1998 had been convicted of a drug offense or had abused drugs regularly.” They further state, “The Bureau of Justice statistics reported that 4 in 10 violent victimizations involved alcohol use; parolees, jail and prison inmates used alcohol (40%) and drugs (20%) at the time of their offense: and two thirds of jail inmates were involved with drugs prior to admissions to jail” (p. 562). Perhaps an individual broke certain laws while under the influence of illicit substances, or they committed crimes in order to feed their drug habits.

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

That course of action is treatment for the convicted offenders. Not to say those who break the law should not have to pay restitution to society, though. Treatment of those who were convicted of drug related offenses could be placed in treatment and returned to society as a productive citizen. The nation’s penal system calls itself rehabilitating the inmates. Statistics prove otherwise. Recidivism has been proven to be low for individuals that have gone through treatment but not for those do not have the opportunity (Cooper). The Federal Bureau of Prisons have found of those inmates who did receive treatment only 3% were rearrested within 6 months, but found over 12% that did not complete treatment were rearrested within 6 month of release (Schmidt). That is a large difference and does not show that the penal system is rehabilitating. Only a few of the number of people that completed treatment went on to continue their criminal career,

In assignment one, I stated that substance abuse disorders can cause barriers for ex-prisoners reentering back into the community because research shows that “individuals who are released from prison are more likely to encounter difficulties with substance abuse, as 73.6% individuals in the criminal justice system have drug and alcohol involved with their criminal behavior. “Researchers found that 80% of individuals incarcerated in state prison have serious substance abuse problems. Substance abuse has a significant role in recidivism upon release from prison and desire to use substances or craving of substance was the most common barrier to reentry” (Phillips and Spencer 127-128). In order to decrease substance abuse in prison reentry and create defensible solutions for ex-offenders, the criminal justice must create incarceration-based therapeutic programs for adults that will use an in-depth drug treatment program model for treating ex-offenders who are addicted to drugs, and change the ex-offender’s attitude, perception, and behavior linked to substance abuse. The program will aim to stop the ex-offender from using drugs and create will power inside the ex-offender not to back track into a life of drug

The United States is desperately in need of prison and criminal justice reform. The current system miserably fails at lowering recidivism rates, limiting prison populations and rehabilitating drug and alcohol addicts. This is because very few prisoners receive drug treatment in prison, and those who do receive inadequate treatment. Fortunately, there are a multitude of upcoming drug treatment techniques that have proven effective in treating addiction. As a result of refining drug treatment in American prisons, not only will more drug addicts overcome their addiction, but the prison population will be reduced and the United States improve financially.

The criminal justice system and government have too harsh of penalties related to drug possession and drug related crime. We have made substance abuse a crime instead of treating it as a disease, thus creating overcrowding in prisons, unemployment rate increases, increase in welfare recipients, and many other social issues. We do not spend enough money on treatment programs so many of addicts are housed in jail and prison. This issue impacts my client, Amber, because she was in much greater need of substance abuse treatment than jail time. If she had an opportunity to address her mental health issues when she first entered the criminal justice system, she may have stopped illegal activity, sought treatment for her addiction and changed her trajectory.

Scientific research shows that treatment can help many drug using offenders change their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors; avoid relapse; and successfully remove themselves from a life of substance use and crime. Treatment can cut drug use in half, decrease criminal activity, and reduce arrests. It is true that legal pressure might be needed to get a person into treatment and help them stay there. Once in a treatment program, however, even those who are not initially motivated to change can become engaged in a continuing treatment process. In fact, research suggests that mandated treatment can be just as effective as voluntary admission to rehab centers.

One of the most profound problems that plagues our society is drug addiction. With drug addiction comes those who offend and have run-ins with the law. Our country deals with these drug-addicted offenders by placing them in jails for a year or longer, only to have them come back out to society when their sentence is over. They are still drug-addicts and so they return to the street only to commit yet another crime. From here the cycle of crime, arrest, jail, and return to society continues, solving absolutely nothing. Therefore, placing drug-addicted offenders in jails fails to confront the major problem at hand which is that of the drug abuse. If drug-addicted offenders were placed in drug treatment centers instead of being incarcerated,

This paper is going to analyze the effectiveness of drug treatment and its currently availability in prisons. This is a concern because drug use is the explanation for why most drug users commit crime to begin with. If inmates are not treated correctly, their drug use continues and they reoffend, harming not only themselves but also possibly others. Some things I will address include drug use and relapse statistics, current availability of treatment, and a few possible solutions to address the problems.

Due to the United States court system focusing on punishment instead of assisting people in battling drug addiction, identified criminals do not receive the proper rehabilitation. Drug addiction is a large problem across the United States; however, the court systems are doing nothing to prevent the growing issue. People who are arrested on drug related crimes are often released without the proper tools they need to battle their addiction, creating a never-ending cycle of repeat offenders. If the court system started to view drug addiction as a disease instead of as a crime, drug addicts would receive better tools to fight their disease.

A number of solutions could be addressed to help solve the problem of drug use. It should involve the drug use treatment whereby the users and addicts of these substances are subjected to a kind of medical treatment so that they stop drinking and smoking (Barlow & Barlow, 2000). Through the treatment accountability for safer communities (TASC), some drug offenders are diverted out of the criminal justice system into community-based supervision. The drug courts seek to reduce drug use and associated criminal behavior by retaining drug-involved offenders in treatment (Walker, 2002). Such people would take time to recover from the drug addiction as well as the involvement in the criminal activities. For the sake of the prisoners arrested and they are drug users, they are treated by a special department before they are released or set free from the jails. The Federal Bureau of Prisons' Drug Treatment Program treats prisoners in drug use before they are finally set free.

“The vast majority of repeat offenders admit to committing their second (or most recent) crime in an effort to obtain money for drugs or drugs themselves” (Green, 2015, para. 7). Green reports that there would be a reduction in incarceration costs if offenders with SUD were referred to community-based treatment programs. If ten percent of these people were transferred to community programs, than the criminal justice system would save $4.8 billion dollars compared to today’s practices. She argues that research has show that if forty percent of eligible individuals received substance abuse treatment, it would save $13 billion. Drug use starts off as a small problem like casual marijuana smoking and grows into a cycle that causes the user to tryer harder drugs and more of them. Green says that education is the key and that is needs to start in the community.

Drug addiction is a disease in the brain that involves biological, psychological, social, and behavioral effects (Olson, 2014). It appears drug use is at an all-time high in the United States, especially in prisons. In 2010, one out of every seven inmates were drug offenders (Olson, 2014). People can become impaired while on these drugs, which can sometimes cause people to make very poor decisions. Some decisions can even land them in prison. 17% of prisoners admitted to committing their current offense for drug money (Wormer, 2010). There is a huge correlation between drug use and the recidivism rate. To lower the recidivism rate, intervention and drug treatment should be provided in prisons. Substance abuse treatment should be provided during the prisoners stay and then should be followed up with aftercare. In prisons, 77.5% of prisoners have a history of drug use and, on average, 75% of those prisoners with previous drug use return to prison when they are not part of the drug treatment program or there is not one available at their location (Rowell-Cunsolo, 2016). Though the rate of drug use is increasing, the use of drug treatment has declining since the 1990’s (Olson, 2016). To successfully give the prisoners a chance at staying away from prison, prisons will need adequate health care to provide services needed for addicts to recover. Examples of these services could be inmate evaluations, consistent drug treatment, and aftercare once they are released.