Treatment Vs Incarceration

Drugs have been known to be detrimental to American society. Commonly known as “ The war on drugs”. Majority of individuals who are incarcerated have been convicted of some type of drug offense and if not a drug related crimes. In many instances, a person can be sent to a jail or prison without receiving the required treatment to help the individual overcome their drug of choice. Remarkably, there is a court solely focused on an individual with a drug problem, which is known as Drug courts.

Many different states have begun sending nonviolent drug offenders to various kinds of drug treatment program the state offers. By doing this, it has significantly reduced the problems with overcrowding. If an individual is arrested and charged with simple possession of a drug and no other crime is being commented, then this person is doing no harm to anyone else. They should be given the opportunity to try and make a change in their life and beat the addiction. Instead, if this person is thrown into jail, they are still going to be an addict with a criminal record now and will not be able to be a contributing member of society. (Everett 1 ).

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.

With California jails and prisons still struggling with finding a reform for non-violent drug offenders the states recidivism rates continue to reach unprecedented numbers. Between 1983 and 1998, drug admissions to state and federal prisons increased sixteen-fold, from over 10,000 drug admissions in 1983 to almost 167,000 new prison entries for drug offenses in 1998 (Worrall et al, 2009). This has been a direct result of our legal system incarcerating offenders who have substance abuse related issues instead of providing a way for treatment or rehabilitation outside of incarceration. Through public policies regarding criminal justice interventions that address drug use and crime, an initiative was created to provide treatment services

Drug addiction has increased drastically across America in the last fifty years. Non-violent drug offenders fill our jails and prisons. Taxpayer dollars are put into a prison system that is proving to be counter-productive. Recidivism rates are high. Drug Court is an alternative to incarceration that offers rehabilitation to criminal offenders. In drug court, the traditional functions of the U.S. justice system are profoundly altered. The judge is the leader of a treatment team. The judge makes all final decisions and holds a range of discretion unprecedented in the courtroom, including the type of treatment mandated and how to address

Since the first drug court was founded, over 3,400 drug courts exist today in every U.S. state and territory (NIJ.gov). The national institute of justice reported that a 33 percent reduction in rearrest rates for drug court graduates compared with other like offenders (Neubauer). The National Association of Drug Court professionals reports that 75 percent of drug court graduates remain arrest-free for at least two years after leaving the program. They also report that drug courts alone reduce crime as much as 45 percent more than other sentencing options (NADCP.org). Not only does drug court benefit the offenders and society, it also benefits taxpayer money. Drug court treatment for the offenders typically cost anywhere between $2,000 to $6,000 annually, depending on the severity of the crime and depending on how long the judge feels the program should last. Instead of wasting taxpayer money and sending them to jail for their addiction, the money is used to treat the offenders and help them so that they don’t end up in prison again as well as beating their addiction along the way. The reason why drug courts have been so successful is because they use therapeutic jurisprudence through the community to help treat their

In the past, law enforcement was taught to arrest anyone distributing or using opioids. The state believed that jail was the best method to get addicts off the streets and to stop using drugs. The issue with this method was when these addicts were released from jail, they went right back to using. United States President Barack Obama, has been working on a plan to reform the nation’s criminal justice program. He proposed that drug courts, which are fundamentally substance-abuse boot camps, are the best way to help treat addiction (Redmond A3+). Obama’s plan involved getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences, which he believed would also be a very cost saving solution. Obama stated, “We should invest in alternatives to prison, like drug courts and treatment and probation programs which ultimately can save tax payers thousands of dollars each year” (Redmond A3+). The problem with Obama’s method is that he does not seem to be concerned about the mental health of these

We have recently seen a change in the way that drug abuse and addiction are viewed. Considering addiction to be a chronic and relapsing disease is a new concept for the public, policymakers, and even health care professionals (Leshner 46). With this in mind, we can recognize that corrections without the benefit of treatment will fall short in correcting drug-seeking and addictive behaviors (Leshner 46). These, of course, are also the behaviors that most often cause an individual to return to crimes that promote their drug use upon leaving jail or prison (Leshner

All the drug related charges are forcing the prison population into overwhelming numbers. Were drug usage decriminalized this could relieve some of the stress on the penal system. Baird states in her piece that the prison population would diminish greatly with legalization and all the money saved can then be used for many more beneficial things “…like treatment for addiction, health, and prevention.” Walter, standing on the

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

As a direct result of this, the city saw nearly a sixty percent reduction in recidivism rates since the legislation was passed in 2012. An evaluation executed by the University of Washington saw that there was a decrease in rates of arrest, prosecution, and incarceration after this plan was implemented in Seattle. The data from the assessment also suggests that the constituents were positively affected by the plan. By allowing drug addicts to opt out of jailtime by seeking treatment at a hospital, the result would be lower prison populations, lower drug crimes, and a significant change in recidivism. While one could argue that this would be out of reach economically, they fail to realize how expensive it truly is to incarcerate prisoners when compared to giving these addicts treatment in hospitals and rehabilitation. In the fiscal year of 2010, the average price per prison that was being imprisoned in correctional facilities was $31,286, which is about three times more than the United States spends per student. The United States would most definitely see positive changes when it comes to spending if drug addicts were allowed to go to a rehabilitation center or seek treatment at

Drug addicts can still get drugs in jail. To treat drug addiction, we’ll still need some jail time. It’s true we need to treat substance drug abuse. But the threat of jail is often what makes treatment work. Behind bars two thirds of inmates have substance problems, and half of them are in prison for something they did while they were drunk or high or both. Lots of people get sober because their facing prison time. Prisons aren't just filled with criminals, there filled with substance abusers. If we treated them,they'd be more

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,

Drugs are a huge problem in the US there are hundreds of people currently addicted to drugs in some states alone and we are trying to solve this problem and whenever a drug addict is caught they are usually sent to prison, tons of people sent to prison when it's not even the best option. Currently, people are completely unaware that rehab is a much better option than prison for drug offenders because it is both economically superior and helps addicts reintegrate into society.

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.