I believe the percentages of Hispanic and African Americans incarcerated contributes to non-violent offenders placed in the American prison system. As of December 24th, 2016, 82.415 persons detained were locked up for drug offenses. Drug offenses made up 46.4% of all the listed offenses for imprisonment (Federal Bureau of Prisons, n.d.). Of those in prison, 110,871 were white, 71,647 were black, and 63,198 were Hispanic (Federal Bureau of Prisons, n.d.). It is my opinion that decriminalization and drug reform would improve drug infested communities, get non-violent drug offenders out of our prison system and assist communities to resolve the violence that follows substance abuse. In law-enforcement, it is common knowledge that crime and …show more content…
With availability, still rampant in neighborhoods, drugs are still ruining lives. "Further, prohibition has been ineffective and has failed to demonstrate any significant reduction in drug usage, drug supply, or drug harm" (Buchanan, 2015, p. 1). The only thing that the "War on Drugs" is documented as doing is increasing mass incarceration numbers but did little to combat the issue. Making a substance illegal, can create an appeal to that drug, making it more desirable. The illicit drug market is extremely violent, to begin with, but with enforcement comes more violence. For example, "Disrupting the once steady market by removing a key business leader makes this underground market more volatile, and turf wars become more likely. When a business is forced to operate underground, there are no legitimate means of resolving disputes between producers, suppliers or users" (Buchanan, 2015, p. …show more content…
Through restorative justice, offenders come to realize what they have done through interaction with their victims and the crimes they committed against them. The experience also helps them cope with their criminal act. According to Mays and Winfree (2005), "Through individual counseling and group work, staff members helped offenders recognize the physical, psychological, and emotional consequences of their offense" (p. 11). Judged by a jury of their peers, defendants are only confronted with their actions in the courtroom. After they are found guilty, they are sent to a jail cell to do nothing but work out, read, and eat. This process initiates a thinking process and helps them realize what they have done is wrong in society, and it brings them face to face with their victims. According to Mays and Winfree (2005), "Finally, the staff worked to end the polarization between victim aid services and offender support services, to build bridges between them and to explore the possibility of victim-offender communications while the offenders were jailed" (p. 11). Elected officials should be concerned and working towards fixing the issues. Riddled with drug problems President Nixon and his administration started this "War on Drugs". The World is losing the war on drugs and enforcement, not the answer. In U.S. politics
The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world's population, our country houses nearly twenty-five percent of the world's reported prisoners. Currently there are approximately two million people in American prisons or jails. Since 1984 the prison population for drug offenders has risen from ten percent to now over thirty percent of the total prison population. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007; 95,446 for drug offenses. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates in 2005; 253,300 for drug offenses. Sixty percent of the drug offenders in prisons are nonviolent and were purely in prison because of drug offenses (Drug War Facts). The question then arises,
The United States incarcerates more people, per capita, than any other nation in the entire world. State and local prisons and jails account for about 80% of incarcerations. Although crime rates have decreased since the 1990s, incarceration rates have soared. According to a recent Prison Policy Initiative publication, approximately 2.3 million people are currently “locked up” in the United States. Of these 2.3 million people, 1 in 5 are locked up for a drug related offense. Statistics show that prisoners and felons imprisoned for drug related crimes are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. The mass incarceration issue in the United States derives from the many arrests associated with these “offenses” regarding drugs and the war on drugs.
There are too many people in prison in our country and any people in prison today are non-violent drug offenders. The American war on drugs has targeted people in poverty and minorities, who are more likely to be involved in drug use. This has created a pattern of crime and incarceration and “...[a] connection between increased prison rates and lower crime is tenuous and small.” (Wyler). The prison system in our country today focuses on punishment for the inmates rather than rehabilitation for life after their release.
Since Nixon and Reagan started the war on drugs the United States have struggled to keep a drug policy that would actually keep people from using drugs. The war on drugs was something that change the history of this country, by making drug trafficking their main priority. This is becoming a big issue since this issue is something that many Americans do everyday. During the time in 1971, President Richard Nixon was the man that created the Drug Enforcement Agency. This was the program called the war in drugs. This was supposed to keep narcotics out within our country and our borders. During 1994, the war on drugs caused people to go to jail, especially the non violent drug users. Criminalization is overcrowding the prisons by putting people
Have you heard the phrase "prisons are over populated!"? Statistics show 21.2% of low level drug offenders, that are incarcerated, do not have any current or prior violence in their records, no involvement in sophisticated criminal activity and no prior commitment. (USDOJ) Could this be the problem of prisons being over populated? There are many factors that need to be considered when looking for other possible methods of dealing with non-violent drug offenders. Some lawmakers believe the only way to deal with these offenders is to lock them up for long periods of time, while other feel the solution lies within treatment facilities and expanded social programs. With both sides having valid points we must then evaluate what is the
Critics argue that legalization of certain drugs will not end the drug war and that instead, it will cause more violence and issues for the county’s well being. In the mid-1980’s the cocaine epidemic hit and a large amount of crime, deaths from overdoses and violence came with it. The result of this was laws being placed with minimum punishment for drug trafficking to attempt to control the issue. Throughout the early 1990s crime started to slowly decrease and in 2013 the amount of crime was reduced in half. One viewpoint is that once the title of being non-violent labeled drug traffickers crime started to rise anew. Some crimes included murders of innocent bystanders and more drug flow into the U.S (Cook1). William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, Boston Globe writers, complicate matters further when they write “For 25 years before President Obama, U.S policy confronted drug
One in three African-American males will go to prison in their lifetime, they constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million imprisoned population, and this is not simply because they commit more crimes than other racial groups. African-Americans drug offenders are 20% more likely of being sentenced to prison than white drug offenders, whilst Hispanics has a 40% greater chance of being sentenced. African-Americans make up 12% of the nation’s drug users, but represent 34% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 45% of those in state prison for such offense as of 2005.
Restorative justice helps offenders realize how the crime impacts everyone not just themselves. The programs and exercises help offenders develop empathy through experiences. Another important effect that is learned is that how childhood trauma and abuse can explain how those experiences may have impacted their personal psychology, and they can develop skills like emotional regulation and anger/stress
Another major subset in the overall prison population in the U.S. is the growing rise in incarceration rates of drug offenders. Professor Blumstein notes that when considering the growth of incarceration rates by specific type of crime, such as murder, robbery, assault, burglary, drugs, and sex offenses during the two decades from 1980 to 2001, the single most important result was that the prison rate for drug offenders increased by a factor of 10; moreover, these drug offenders currently account for the largest percentage of both state and federal prison populations (Blumstein, 2011).
The War on Drugs, like the war on Terrorism, is a war that America may not be able to afford to win. For over forty years the United States has been fighting the War on Drugs and there is no end in sight. It has turned into a war that is about politics and economics rather than about drugs and criminals. The victims of this war are numerous; but perhaps they are not as numerous as those who benefit from the war itself.
Each president makes decisions based on their understanding of the people’s behalf. The reduction of prisoner’s main goal was to save taxpayer dollars, and to reduce the growth of prisons, since they are being overcrowded. Those prisoners who Obama had given commuting sentences are intimately considered nonviolent drug offenders. Therefore, I truly believe that these pardons are appropriate and do not lack any executive authority abuse. From my point of view, non-violent offenders should not be stuck in prison serving life sentences, as opposed to those violent criminals. Criminals such as murderers, rapists, and violent offenders. Those mentioned above are irresponsible people, whom the executive law should be focused on designing life sentences
Is Prohibition actually successful in reducing recreational drug consumption and drug-related violence? This is the question that will be analyzed in this paper. Drug enforcement officials frequently cite drug-related violence as a reason that drugs must be eliminated from our society. A contrary belief is that the system of drug prohibition actually causes most of the violence. Just like with alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and the rise of organized crime, drug prohibition inspires a dangerous underground market that manifests itself with violent crime throughout the U.S. and, in fact, the
If risk factors are fixed and stable across time and assuming no will power or morality is involved then no. We, as a society, do not have the right to incarcerate repeated drug offenders. For instance, assuming this fact were true, that would mean that drug offenders have basically been programmed to use drugs. Meaning that a child with parents of drug users would become a drug abuser as well, without the child’s will. Putting someone in prison for something they have no control over would not be right nor would it make sense since they would just continue to be drug users.
The article written by Dabney and Hollinger speaks on pharmaceutical abuses and therapeutic self-medicators. These offenses can be broken down into 4 subgroups that give the framework to a specific crime; behavioral, cognitive, the criminal sub-culture, and societies reaction to the crime.
The War on Drugs is a current conflict that has been going on for many decades. It is a movement organized by the United States Government in attempts to reduce the amount of illegal drug trafficking in the country. The War on Drugs enforced strict drug policies that are intended to reduce both the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal drugs. The term was first used by President Richard Nixon, during a press conference concerning the nationwide drug abuse issue, in which Nixon announces to the Congress that drug abuse was, “public enemy number one”. Illegal drugs are certainly dangerous; addiction and death are two but many factors as a result of drugs. However, even though the War on Drugs might sounds justifiable, in truth, it is actually making the drug issue worst in the country.