Essay On Drug Incarceration

Through the years everything on earth has gone through an evolving period where changes must be made to better correlate with their environments. In the criminal justice system one area in specific that needs to go through such a stage of evolution is the incarceration of drug related addictions and crimes. Over the years prison populations have sky rocketed due to the mass incarceration of drug related offenses. Over populated prisons are now a major issue in the United States and continues to be a highly debated issue across the nation. One way we can fix this problem is to rehabilitate the drug addict and show them the path to a clear and clean future. Serving prison sentences are not the correct way to help someone with an addiction

prison policy (Samuels 1). Prisoners were encouraged to develop occupational skills and to resolve psychological problems, such as substance abuse or aggression, which might interfere with their reintegration into society. Indeed, many inmates received court sentences that mandated treatment for such problems. Since then, however, rehabilitation has taken a back seat to a "get tough on crime" approach that sees punishment as prison's main function (1). The approach has created explosive growth in the prison population, while having at most a modest effect on crime

According to research that tracks individuals in treatment over extended periods, most people who get into and remain in treatment stop using drugs, decrease their criminal activity, and improve their occupational, social, and psychological functioning (1). For example, methadone treatment has been shown to increase participation in behavioral therapy and decrease both drug use and criminal behavior (1). However, individual treatment outcomes depend on the extent and nature of the patient’s problems, the appropriateness of treatment and related services used to address those problems, and the quality of interaction between the patient and his or her treatment providers