Incarceration Policy

However, the imposition of punitive penalties fails to adequately respond to drug-related crime. This is because punitive measures fail to address the complex nature and causes underlying the commission of drug-related offences. It has been found that after release from prison, without accessible, integrated and consistent drug treatment and support such as access to housing and employment, people with substance use issues are at higher risk of re-offending and returning to prison, or dying from a drug overdose.

Drug courts, initially propelled in Florida in 1989, are an arrangement of escalated treatment and supervision. The thought is to treat the instances of peaceful substance-mishandling guilty parties uniquely in contrast to other criminal cases in light of the fact that the dependence is at the base of the criminal action. Accentuation is on recovery instead of discipline.

America's prisons are overpopulated and the population is growing each year with increased drug activities. Low level drug offenders, comprised of 39 percent of the overall prison population. In the article " Department of Justice low-level drug offenders: a defense perspective" defines low-level drug offender as one who has been convicted drug trafficking offense but has no prior commitment, history of violence, known involvement of sophisticated criminal activity, significant "public risk factor," and pending detainer (Katz 28) . This group isn't hardened criminals and don't live a life of crime; rather they are motivated by profit. They are less likely to return to prison when compared to hardened criminals. The length of drug sentences

In America, the private prison industry was made for necessary profit based off of the management of prisons by large, private companies. In David Shapiro’s insightful report “Banking on Bondage”, he discusses the logistics of the United States prison system, saying “In America, our criminal justice system should keep us safe, operate fairly, and be cost-effective”. Today, the United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world, including Russia, China, and Iran. Alongside the issues of private prisons, the increasingly apparent problem of mass incarceration has stripped record numbers of American citizens of their freedom, has a minimal effect on public

In America, 2.3 million people are in prison. American has the highest prison population in the world. This is due to “tough on crime laws” that have been enforced since the 1960’s. Although these laws do help keep crime off the street, they have done more harm than good for our country. Mass incarceration is a major issues in America, it leads to poverty, broken families, money wasted, and many other problems. Although everyone can recognize mass incarceration is a problem, they are different ways people think it should be dealt with.

The use of marijuana in the United States has been widely discussed and debated throughout the years if it should be legalized. Some states, such as Colorado, have benefited tremendously through the act of legalizing marijuana, either through recreational or medical purposes of the drug. Some studies even show the dropping of crime rates, and drug affiliated gangs in the state of Colorado has considerably gone down. As a society, many young adults throughout the nation are taught through their parents and schools that those drugs are bad, and they are dangerous for their health and safety. Surprisingly, many scientists and other lab experts are opening up to the idea that marijuana can actually be used to offset and improve some symptoms, but

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

1: In this article, “Prison addiction: why mass incarceration policies must change” the author, Madden, Denis J, is stating that the reason of drug addict, are higher unemployment rate, poor education, and poverties.

After analyzing 69 adult Drug Courts, every practice found there was higher recidivism reduction compared to another program (NREPP , 2017, p. 4). Through studies on individual participants, SAMHSA found that “drug courts ‘significantly reduced the incidence of incarceration from a base rate of 50% to roughly 42% for jail, 38% for prison, and 32% for overall incarceration’” (NREPP, 2017, p. 6). Drug Courts save people from getting put in jail and this study shows how it works in keeping them out after completion. Low recidivism percentages are another huge plus to the courts. Recidivism reduction is the goal here, and percentages in the study ranged from 5-164% reduction rates (NREPP, 20137, p. 4). Other benefits this study found from Drug Courts are ‘reductions in drug and alcohol misuse and improvements in socioeconomic outcomes (i.e., employment and education), family relationships, and access to needed financial and social services” (NREPP, 2017, p. 6). In all, both of these studies point towards the positives of Drug Courts and give reason as to why the funding should be plentiful and continued for further success in incarceration reduction

While at St. Gertrude, Rose would often wander away and have sexual encounters with men. Staff noticed her condition worsening during her time at the school. Dr Bertram S Brown, the former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, documented that “a neurological disturbance or disease of some sort seemingly had overtaken her and it was becoming The United States incarcerates more people than any other developed nation. While the U.S. population has doubled since the 1950s, the population in state and federal prisons has swollen by over eight hundred percent during that time period. Several policies have resulted in the today’s mass incarnation rates, causing absurd financial strains to state and national budgets that deflect taxpayer money from much needed services, in order to pay for the housing of incarcerated individuals. Conversations about criminal justice reform have to include the issue of incarcerating the mentally ill if the United States is serious about reducing mass incarceration and recidivism.

The high incarceration rate of Black Americans has pervasive and chronically negative stigmas regarding the social and economic vitality of the Black American community, such as a lack of democratic participation and violence within urban communities (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011). According to Forman Jr. (2012), some of 5 the negative affects of systemic racism of Black Americans born into the hip-hop generation who have been convicted include the ineligibility of public assistance programs such as health care, food stamps, public housing, student loans, and some employment opportunities. Additionally, many of the individuals suffering from the stigma of incarceration come from backgrounds of disadvantage such as single parent homes, low

Primarily, Alexander links mass incarceration’s cause of the War on Drugs. Her secondary cause for this phenomenon appears after this war begins; many defendants cannot obtain “meaningful legal representation” (Alexander 17), a claim which widely goes undisputed. Meanwhile, the argument that “convictions for drug offenses —not violent crime—are the single most important cause of the prison boom in the United States” (Alexander 102), a repetitive argument in her book, sparks controversy. Scholars, such as Pfaff, believe that writers distort the role of drug convictions due to focusing on only

In context to, Tonry, (2014), especially in California, this was for the reason that unlawful behaviors became a chief economical net to the masses. Various changes passed by the governing authority encompassed of sentencing laws which made numeral of African Americans to be imprisoned when alleged to have engaged in crime. The end result of this was the prison population increasing and thus more prisons were put in place. Individuals living in the southern states were most affected as they were imprisoned based on their races, status in the society and education level, minority groups were the most suspected criminals since their level of drug addiction was high hence making them to be the most disadvantaged.

Incarceration refers to the constitutional deprivation of an offender the capacity to commit crimes by detaining them in prisons. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation. The U.S incarcerates five times more people than the United Kingdom, nine times more than Germany and twelve times more than Japan (Collier, 2014, p.56). Incarceration has several objectives. One of these is to keep persons suspected of committing a crime under secure control before a court of competent jurisdiction determines whether they are guilty or innocent. Incarceration also punishes offenders by depriving them of their liberty once the court of law has convicted. Moreover, incarceration deters criminals from committing further crimes

Marijuana is one of the plants that has both positive and negative side effects for the users. Most people have considered marijuana as a taboo, but the truth is, marijuana is not always illegal; it has been used by our ancestors since ancient times, as a traditional medicine. It has also been proven from laboratory research that marijuana can cure various diseases, including nerve-related disease. Therefore, the use of marijuana should not be regarded as controversial, but as an alternative treatment, especially for the nerve system.