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Essay On Mass Incarceration

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Mass incarceration is a large issue in the United States. Largely due to drug-related crimes. Researchers, government officials, and citizens are all attempting to push anti-drug policies to attempt and reduce the level of drug usage in the United States. Many individuals, myself included, believe that alternately there should be more focus on prevention and treatment of criminals rather than harsher punishments imposed. While anti-drug policies and harsher punishments may help deter crimes from happening it does not address the issue of inmates and their actions after incarceration. Focusing more on prevention and treatment helps in three main ways. The first is it can rehabilitate the person improving social structure, diminish high crime rates, and have a more positive economic impact …show more content…

In a report done by the Legislative Analyst Project they identified eight significant criminal risk factors. These factors included: Antisocial behavior, antisocial personality, criminal thinking, antisocial relationships, family and marital status, school and work status, leisure and recreational activities, and substance use. The research they found showed how rehabilitation programs can help address these factors, which are large contributors to recidivism, the number of inmates that re-offend after release. They state, “...disorder treatment programs can help reduce or eliminate the criminal risk resulting from an offender’s problems with alcohol and/or other drugs (Improving In-Prison).”
In addition to rehabilitating the inmates so they do not commit crimes in the future rehabilitation also helps to decrease large crime rates. In Europe, the system they use shows a complete difference in the methods of punishment used in the United States. As the Atlantic

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After conducting some research I have reached the conclusion that drug offenders are the population in which could be more successfully controlled and rehabilitated in less secure correctional alternatives. There are a couple different beneficial aspects to transferring drug offenders out of prisons and into programs. The first is that is saves money while also being more effective. When you place an inmate into a program that is designed to help them with their specific problem your results improve. The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment’s final report on NTIES noted that “In summary, we observed a pattern of substantially reduced alcohol and drug use in every type of treatment modality, with reductions typically between one-third and two-thirds

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In terms of public safety, only 3% of individuals who were involved in treatment programs committed violent crimes after treatment; this number doubles for those who were sentenced to jail and prisons. New York has made the necessary changes to start viewing The War on Drugs and its influence on Mass Incarceration as not only a criminal justice issue but also now a mental health and public health problem. From the beginning, stakeholders saw the flaws and have spent about 36 years working out the issues. The reform is a good stepping stone toward a more just system, but just as the original Rockefeller drug Laws had their issues, the new reforms will have issues that will be worked out through the years to

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However, a child who has conduct problems early on does not always mean they will turn into a criminal in the future. Delinquency programs are beneficial to the child socially and personally but also a good financial investment. Taxpayers save money due to the fact that these programs reduce the amount spent on incarcerating. Rehabilitation is a process in which it attempts to restore a person back into becoming an asset to the community. When it comes to juveniles, rehabilitation is designed purposely for minors who have committed crimes or who may display a future in crime.

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Sammy Vogel Criminal RehabilitationTable Of Contents Background 3 Overview 4-7 What Rehabilitation is 5 Norway 6 Private Prisons 7 8-11 History History of the US justice system 9 History of Norway 10 History of California’s Rehabilitation Programs 11 Controversy 12-15 What people think 13 Reasons why it’s a good idea 14 Reasons why it’s a bad idea 15 2 Background Definition Rehabilitation programs are defined as programs that reduce recidivism by improving behavioral skills, mental health, social functioning, and access to education and employment. What We Have Right Now: We do not currently have a well-funded rehabilitation program in our prisons.

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The idea behind these program was to help treat the offenders for their substance abuse disorders while still holding them accountable for the crime that they had committed (Lutze & Wormer, 2013). Many studies have been conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of drug court programs across the country. In a qualitative study done by Gallagher 100 participants of the drug court program were examined. This study found that of the drug court participants, seventy-nine percent were not rearrested in the follow-up period. Twenty-one percent of those participants were rearrested (Gallagher, 2014).

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In my opinion, of the seven goals I personally favor rehabilitation. To begin, rehabilitation is providing offenders with the services or programs they need in order to change their behaviors, character, and attitudes. Many of these wrongful behaviors are what gets them into the criminal situations they find themselves wrapped up in. By offering them hands on help to fix themselves we can eventually reduce crime. I believe that many if not all offenders have poor behaviors and attitudes, which allows them to commit crime without any second thought – by changing

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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

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While addressing any underlying issues that may have led to their offending behaviour. It emphasizes prevention and rehabilitation rather than punishment, which may lead to reduced recidivism rates among young offenders (Bauer, 2019). Although, there are still limitations to this system, including concerns about the cost and availability of resources needed to support the rehabilitation centres (James,

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Giving an offender the wrong intensity of treatment for their risk level, such as high intensity treatment to a low-risk individual, can have negative effects since a low-risk offender may already have protective factors in place. Another pro of the RNR model is that it has the advantage of targeting dynamic issues that are directly linked with a crime; This allows treatment to adhere to problems that may decrease future

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In the 1970s the United States entered the era known as mass incarceration, the byproduct of the drug war. The War on Drugs changed how society handled drug dependency, diverting the problem from public health to criminal justice. Since the Nixon administration, the political stance on being tough on crime has resulted in various laws and policing practices that heavily criminalized drugs to point in which the prison population in the United States increased from 300,000 people in 1972 to 2.3 million today (Barish, DuVernay, Averick & DuVernay, 2016). The epidemic of mass incarceration corresponds to a variety of public health issues such as mental illness, increased violence within society, increased incidence of addictions, and increased incidence of chronic illnesses (Drucker, 2013).

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They are less likely to return if low level drug offenders receive treatment during and after prison. Olson and Lurigion state ,"Drug addiction is a chronic relapse brain disease with biological, psychological, social and behavioral concomitants"(600). If a drug criminal is treated for his addiction, he/she will be less likely to commit crimes. The treatment has to be comprehensive and provide a wide range of treatment (Olsen and Lurigion (601) Many professions believe treatment is more effective than incarceration for several months.

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As I mentioned above, since the War on Drugs era, the prison population has increased at an alarming rate. Overcriminalization has most of the responsibility for this problem. Along with the overcrowding of prisons, the obstacle of overcriminalization also brings sentencing reform to the table. It puts citizens that had no criminal intent in their actions and non-violent offenders in prison for unjust lengths of time. Serving

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As a nation, we imprison more people than any other nation. The disproportion between crime committed and time serve in prison is alarming. A drug offense should never lead to more time in prison than rape or equal to the crime of murder. Because of our fear getting in the way of rational thinking, we have policies in place that lead to unproportionable sentencing. I believe that the article makes great suggestions that may work in practice, however we must change public perception on the issue of mass incarceration until the majority of the nation sees this as an issue.

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It increases the risk of recidivism and contributes to the continuous spread of illegal substances in America. The journal articles, Drug Treatment in State Prisons and Inmate Drug Abuse Treatment Slows Prison Revolving Door gives an inside look into prison treatment and some of its

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A very important aspect of the criminal justice system is to ensure there is a way to rehabilitate offenders, not only incarcerate them. Rehabilitation in the criminal justice system means that there is an attempt by the system to restore a criminal back to a productive and useful member of society free of the life of crime. By rehabilitating an offender, the system is trying to alter their behavior and attitude in a positive way and to make them once again, law abiding citizens (Seiter, 2014). Rehabilitation can come in many forms, such as drug treatment, education, mental health treatment, develop better decision making skills, therapeutic counseling and even job training. An offender does need to be punished for breaking the law, but they need to accept responsibility for their crimes and eventually change their

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