In today’s society, drug use and drug abuse have become a major conflict in the United States. Drug abuse is America’s number one enemy. According to an article from the Huffington Post, during the past decade, American drug consumers have spent over 1 trillion dollars on marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and meth (Ferner 2014). Today’s drug laws and policies have failed to help fight the war on drugs making, drugs more dangerous to drug consumers. Federal prisons incarcerate over 2 million people, more
Drug Courts were first put into effect to move cases from the correctional system into rehabilitation programs. The war on drugs led to an influx of drug offenders into the criminal justice system, so some change was needed. Drug courts are much different than regular courts. These courts help non-violent offenders recover from their addictions and help them become productive citizens in society. These courts are very unique in that the justice and treatment systems work together to help offenders
on Prisons in America In 1971, President Nixon, enacted the War on Drug campaign, in hope to reduce the amount of illegal drugs being sold. When Ronald Reagan was in office the incarcerated population increased tremendously. The number of people sent to jail for nonviolent charges from 1980 to 1997 increased by about 125 percent. According to Pattie Saris, when it came to sentencing on the drug charges, judges were able to sentence how they felt were appropriate. Which meant there could be numerous
have come up with a way of dealing with drug and alcohol addiction which is by developing a drug court. The first drug court was established in Miami- Dale County in 1989 as a result of the up rise in crack-cocaine problems the county was facing. The justice professionals decided to fix this problem by combining drug treatment together with the structure and authority of the judge. A drug court in some cases might be referred to as a drug treatment court. Drug courts were quickly adopted by communities
Abstract The presence of severely mentally ill persons in jails and prisons is an urgent problem. This review examines this problem and makes recommendations for preventing and alleviating it. Results and Clinical studies suggest that 6 to 15 percent of persons in city and county jails and 10 to 15 percent of persons in state prisons have severe mental illness. Offenders with severe mental illness generally have acute and chronic mental illness and poor functioning. It appears that a greater proportion
findings from the 2013 AFL-CIO Convention, for-profit prison companies benefit from rising rates of incarceration that stem in large part from changes in laws and procedures that require increased penalties for nonviolent and minor crimes. Such crimes include the possession of small portions of drugs, and lengthy or lifetime incarceration as a result of “three strikes” sentencing laws. From 1980 and 2011 the approximate number of inmates grew from 500,000 to 2.2 million. The rise has had a disproportionate