Residential Drug Abuse Program Essay

Across the United States and throughout the world there is an epidemic of epic proportion involving drug addiction. Here in North Carolina the majority of the Department of Corrections inmate population is known to have substance abuse problems. (Price, 62) Along with this epidemic is the growing problem of prison overcrowding. There is a correlation between the two. Many of today’s correctional facilities house inmates that have committed drug related crimes or crimes that they committed while under the influence. There is a solution that would help society and lessen the overcrowding of the penal system. The solution is to help those that are committing crimes because of an addiction disorder. There is viable evidence that this solution

In facilities, there are generally administrative staffs taking care of daily running. It also includes counselor, defined as a staff member who had direct clinical contact with clients, including counselors, social workers, case managers, clinical supervisors, and therapists. These can be full-time, part-time, and contractual basis. Not all facilities has availability of a psychiatrist. Most public facilities have psychiatric affiliation. Programs are generally accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) or the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). (National Survey of Substance AbuseTreatment Services (N-SSATS): 2013, 2013)

However that is not to say that there are changes being made. It has been shown that “governing bodies have managed drug use and addiction as a public health problem which requires treatment, counseling and medical interventions rather than incarceration”(Stevenson B. 2011) . One such act that assists drug offenders is the Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP), this program was developed by Kings county District Attorney’s office in Brooklyn NY and was the first drug treatment diversion program in the country. What the program is directed towards is those non-violent drug offenders and diverting them towards community-based treatment facilities. It has high structure, long periods on intervention and flexibility. Those that qualify are individuals that are repeat felony offenders arrested in the area that face mandatory sentencing under the State’s second felony offender law and the addiction should be a contributing factor in their criminal activities. The end-state of the program is that “those who successfully complete the DTAP treatment are permitted to withdraw their guilty plea and have the case dismissed. Those who drop out or fail the program are brought back to court and sentenced on

The primary goal of the Proposition 36 program is to divert substance using offenders from likely incarceration into the community where they can access and benefit from substance abuse treatment (Evans et al, 2011). With this goal in mind thousands of offenders who were destined for a jail cell could receive the proper treatment needed and our states recidivism rate would go down. This was not only a goal of Proposition 36 but a great success. SACPA is considered a successful program with tens of thousands of offenders enrolling each year, resulting in outcomes comparable to those commonly observed in residential treatment facilities.

The original residential treatment model consisted of a 3 to 6 week hospital-based inpatient treatment phase followed by extended outpatient therapy and participation in a self-help group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Once the individual is infatuated with one or more drugs it is viewed as an addiction, but programs such as the F.I.S.T program consider it to be a disease. This specific program takes those diseased who are willing to get clean and want to be reintegrated into society as a law abiding citizen. Many have argued that drug court programs do not focus enough on the participant’s life outside of the program after his or her graduation. A recent study researched the success of the after effects this program had against offenders who were eligible and entered the program versus those who were eligible and did not enter. With the F.I.S.T program, participants received therapeutic tools and rigorous education compared to those who did not. With this study, out of the 186 individuals who participated, only 10 of them were rearrested after the first 6 months. The counter research of the 994 who did not participate, had 108 individuals be re-arrested after the first 6 months. Once the one year or more re arrest comparison between the two were calculated, it was found that completers of this program are 16% less likely to recidivate to drug offenses than those who did not complete F.I.S.T. The reason behind these finding were the teachings the participants were exposed to during the process. With educational programs, they discovered what they were

Currently, America incarcerate a higher percentage of its citizens than any other industrialized nation in the world. The negative impact of addiction to alcohol and drugs on American culture and society is inescapable. Although various treatment models have been developed and implemented over the years, a monumental number of people struggling with substance dependence continue to be under treated. Whereas, many people are questioning the criminalization people face because they ingest or consume drugs, for the most part, the criminal justice system focus more on incarceration instead of rehabilitation for the offenders and addicts.

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

Almost two-thirds of all inmates in prison, at least, meet the criteria for substance abuse or dependence, and only about fifteen percent of these people will receive some type of treatment while incarcerated (Taylor). With only about fifteen percent of the people in prison receiving treatment, that means around 85 percent of the people are basically in jail for nothing. Nothing has been taught to keep the individual from doing the same actions. That is a prime of example for prisons failing to rehabilitate drug addicts. In a study by the DEA, Drug Enforcement Administration, when inmates receive treatment while in prison it can help reduce the chances of the inmate repeat offending from fifty percent to somewhere around twenty percent (Carmichael). Rich, who is a professor of medicine and community health at Brown University, said “Our system has taken the highest-risk and most ill people and put them in a place where they have constitutionally mandated health care, what a great opportunity to make a difference. Are we just trying to punish people? Or are we trying to rehabilitate people? What do we want out of this?”. In the state of Ohio first and second-time drug offenders are offered the opportunity of receiving treatment. As stated earlier only fifteen percent of inmates receive treatment, the number may start to get even lower

The United States Correctional System is often challenged as to whether it wants to rehabilitate drug offenders or punish them, and because of this it mostly does neither. Even though drug abuse and drug trafficking are widely spread national issues, the mental, social, and economic costs of "healing" through incarceration are only making the "disease" worse. Never before have more prisoners been locked up on drug offenses than today. Mixed with the extremely high risks of today's prison environment, the concept of incarceration as punishment for drug offenders cannot be successful. Without the correct form of rehabilitation through treatment within Michigan's Correctional System, drug

Every prison or institution must provide inmates with a non-residential drug abuse treatment program; according to Federal Bureau of Prison Program. Inmates have the option to participate in non-residential drug programs, consisting of one hour of drug abuse counseling a month as they remain in general population. To be considered for

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,

Today there are a ton of drugs out there that are extremely harmful, yet people still choose to indulge in them. I think the making of new drugs will continue to happen due to people wanting to experiment so that they can have something of value to sell. There is a greater number of young adults and teenagers in this world who engage in drugs rather than adults. Our society isn't very educated on how drugs can harm your body which just makes it even worse to use them. People will continue to do drugs because of the way it makes them feel and also because it looks cool among their peers.

When addressing drug addiction, it is important that people choose their words wisely, as many can easily be offended. Is drug addiction a choice or something a person cannot choose? In Seattle, safe-injection sites are legal. A safe-injection is a place where people who are addicted to drugs can safely inject those drugs under the watch of nurses, who are there in case of an overdose, so they can provide the drug Naloxone which is used against opiates. According to Alice Park and Paul Moakley (2017), “From 2002 to 2015, deaths from heroin overdose increased more than sixfold, and in 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported more than 30,000 seizures of fentanyl, a dramatic spike from the 5,000 documented in 2014”. By having a place where nurses are available in case of an overdose could help bring the number of deaths down caused by an overdose. Safe-injection sites could help in a way to lessen the spread of diseases through shared needles, but it does not help the fact the people are still doing those drugs. By giving addicts a safe place to do drugs, like Heroin for example, it is making them think that doing drugs is an okay thing to do, when in reality it is illegal to be distributed and harms the body and brain. However, by giving addicts a safe place to inject could possibly make them realize that they need to get help. Instead of pushing addicts to quit and get help, if they see that they have an actual problem, then the help that they would get could

It is common knowledge that America has the world’s largest population of prisoners, and in 2008, a study was completed by the Pew Charitable Trusts which indicated that half of the inmates in jail and prison are serving time for nonviolent drug charges (http://www.pewstates.org/news-room/press-releases/new-pew-study-finds-36-percent-increase-in-prison-time-served-85899394970). Since the “War on Drugs” approach about forty years ago, the criminalization of the addict has done very little to address the problem of substance abuse in society. While there is no one clear cause of substance abuse, there have been patterns identified in substance abusers, that may be the underlying factors that lead to the addiction. Some of these factors include mental health and biology.