These offenders will face difficulties re¬connecting with jobs, housing, and perhaps their families when they return, and will remain beset by substance abuse and health problems. Based on data from the national Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, “nearly 80% of arrestees admitted to the Jail in 2012 were positive for an illegal drug. Of all the people admitted to the jail nearly half did not have a high school diploma or GED.” (Recidivism Reduction Demonstration, Web). Unfortunately most of these individuals will return to prison as a result of the social disadvantages that they are accustomed to.
Qualified drug-addict dependent people might be sent to Drug Court in lieu of conventional sentencing or consequences due to their illegal drug use and addiction. Drug Courts keep people in
In 1980, almost 200 years after prisons were first used as a criminal sanction, there were only 316,000 sentenced prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction. In only thirty years, from 1980 to 2010, the number of prisoners increased by almost 500 percent, to more than 1.6 million inmates. (Seiter, 2014, p. 130) Most of our prisons are filled with offenders that have not actually committed violent crimes. Many individuals are in jailed because they committed a crime that involved drugs or for getting a DUI. People with these types of offenses should be sentenced to a rehabilitation program. Prison overcrowding is at an all-time high, and instead of putting everyone in prison we should be looking for solutions to help
Patricia O 'Brien 's article on We should stop putting women in jail. For anything is not practical. The article title was misleading and the article focused on women should not be incarcerated for nonviolent crimes and getting rid of women 's prisons. The examination of women in U.S. prisons reveals that majority are nonviolent offenders with poor education, little employment experiences and abuse from childhood to adulthood. She said the United States is a prison nation and have more than 1.5 million people incarcerated. The article said there are fewer women in prison than men, women account for only 7 percent. The prison system is designed for men and not won, and mothers of children need support at homes, not in prison. The article said
In the context of gender disparity in criminal sentencing, some may think that having said that criminal courts are more lenient on women is just one’s opinion. In fact, a lot of researches and data suggest that there is a strong different in gender in the sentencing outcomes. Men are sentenced to longer prison terms than women. Men are 42% more likely to be sentenced to prison. Critics suggest that federal courts show more leniency on female defendants in a lot of court cases. They are less likely to imprison or confine women and tend to give women shorter sentences than men. A research states that men receive 63% longer sentences on average than women do. Researches show that women are twice as
The current system that incarcerates people over and over is unsustainable and does not lower the crime rate nor encourage prisoner reformation. When non-violent, first time offenders are incarcerated alongside violent repeat offenders, their chance of recidivating can be drastically altered by their experience in prison. Alternative sentencing for non-violent drug offenders could alleviate this problem, but many current laws hinder many possible solutions. Recently lawmakers have made attempts to lower the recidivism rates in America, for example the Second Chance Act helps aid prisoners returning into society after incarceration. The act allows states to appropriate money to communities to help provide services such as education, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, job corps services, and others to aid in offenders returning to society after incarceration (Conyers, 2013). The Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program is another attempt to provide better treatment for people who are convicted. The study showed that drug offenders who underwent a treatment program outside of prison had a 26 percent less rate of re-arrest after two years than a control group that was sent to prison (Justice Policy Institute, 2010). Rehabilitative programs like the Second Chance Act and the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program has shown to growth and positive
The legalization of drugs has been at the center of interminable debate. Drugs have widely been perceived as a dominant threat to the moral fabric of society. Drug use has been attributed as the source responsible for a myriad of key issues. For instance, it is believed that drugs have exacerbated the already weak status of mental health in the United States in which some individuals suffering from mental illness administer illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine in an attempt to self-medicate. Moreover, drugs are blamed for turning auspicious members of the community into worthless degenerates. Thus, vast efforts have been made to regulate the alleged drug problem through various avenues. For example, programs have been created to steer
“Drug courts are specialized courts that deal only in substance use/abuse cases. As an alternative to traditional courts, drug courts arrange for treatment for drug offenders. Upon successful completion of the program, some courts then dismiss criminal charges against defendants entirely” (Robinson, 2013). When somebody is accused and charges of drug possession, they have drug courts to handle these cases. If a man experiences the general court system, they will have more sentencing time and the fines are bigger. While experiencing a drug court they may get fines and drug programs they have to finish. They will choose the kind of court when sentenced, this relies on upon how much drugs they possess. The purpose for the drug courts and drug programs is restoration for drug users was costly; they implemented these programs to offer assistance.
In addition to greatly affecting the otherwise unlikely citizens of America, Tough on Crime policies have greatly affected minority groups in America; perhaps more so than of any other group of citizens. To begin, from the 1980 on through the year 1995, the incarceration rates among drug offenders increased by more than 1000 percent. Notably, by the year 1995 one out of every four inmates in any given correctional facility was a drug offender. In addition of that 1000 percent increase, drug offenders accounted for more than 80 percent of the total growth in the federal inmate population and 50 percent of the growth of the state prison population from 1985 to 1995 (Stith, web). In addition, once in the system, the probability of receiving harsher
Mandatory minimums and lack of parole are also a large reason on why prisons are overcrowded (“Criminal Justice Facts.” The Sentencing Project). Since 1980, the number of inmates incarcerated for drug offenses has increased drastically. In 1980, there were 40,900 people in jail for drug offenses and in 2015, there are over 469,545 offenses. Today in U.S. prisons there are more inmates behind bars for drug offense chargers than there are the prisoners in jail for any type of crime in 1980 (“Criminal Justice Facts.” The Sentencing Project). We have inmates with drug offenses serving longer sentences than those who had more serious crimes like sexual assault, or robbery or sometimes even manslaughter. Is that the case all the time? No, of course not, but our prison system is filled with individuals with drug charges facing maximum sentences instead of providing drug rehabilitation. When those who are facing drug charges are placed into prison they are not given the opportunity to get clean the right way. There is no rehab for them, they are just placed there and expected to serve their sentence, which are often very excessive. Despite the extremely large rise in the incarceration rate over the last forty years, it has not shown an effective way of achieving public safety. It only creates financial burden on the state and also results in creating more overcrowding the prison system (“Criminal Justice Facts.” The Sentencing Project). Below is a chart from “The Sentencing Project” to show the prison population since
An effort to retroactivly change the current system of corrections in revielence to non-violent drug offenses.
However, I believe the power reassurance rapist would be most amenable to treatment since these types of sex offenders are the least violent. Their low sense of self-esteem and lack of self-confidence leads them to commit these crimes, and I believe that with proper treatment they might be able to deal with the issues that are causing them to hurt women. It is definitely not as severe as the other types of sex offenders that were discussed. The sadistic rapist is least likely to respond well to treatment. They are violent towards their victims and may even kill their victims if they feel the need to. In addition, several of these offenders have a co-occurring disorder (e.g., antisocial personality disorder). It would make difficult to treat
It is well documented that juvenile females often incur harsher sentencing that male juvenile offenders. Females have seen a 50% increase, from 20% to 29%, in arrest from 1992 to 2012. The percentage of juvenile girls being sent to detention centers has had a similar increase over the same amount of time (On, n.d.). There are several theories that try to explain the phenomenon of this harsher sentencing, most notably is the paternalistic theory. There is evidence that juvenile girls are treated more severely by police, caseworkers, lawyers, and judges (Thibodeau, 2002).
This program offers a variety of transitional services including substance abuse treatment, life skills, and training for employment opportunities. Although these mandatory services are designed to enhance the women’s productivity and interpersonal skills, they appear to have become overwhelming and possibly interfering with the women’s schedules in actually applying for jobs. It also appears facilitators are not relatable in terms of culture, background, social status and ethnicity. “The complexity of the disadvantages confronting prisoners after release means that individual offenders often require more than a single program or intervention.