Therapeutic Community Model Analysis

In this article, the information is pulled from a study of inmate self-report surveys from 2002 and 2004 to examine characteristics of the prison and jail populations in the United States and assess why so many drug-involved offenders are incarcerated. After the U.S “war on drugs” in the 1980s, a large number of drug-using offenders were sent to prison and jail for long periods of time. As with this influx of addicted offenders, interests also grew in community-based drug treatment with justice system oversight as an alternative to incarceration. Overall, drug courts were implemented on a national scale and operate in a wide area of the U.S. Empirical research conducted over the past two decades indicates that, on balance, drug courts are more effective than conventional correction options at reducing the drug use and criminal activity of drug-involved offenders.

Prisons are reaching their capacity limit, while the substance abusive inmates make up most the population (“thenationshealth.apublications.org”). Though they serve their time, many of the inmates do not have the opportunity to access treatment while in prison (United States,2003). Due to that the National Institute on Drug abuse they have come up with economic treatment plans that are available for those convicted of crimes related to drugs, alcohol and substance abuse. With successful treatment plans the the inmates gets through their addiction and when the time is over they end up being productive to the community while they have a lesson to teach others that anything is possible with determination and right process of recovery. Drug court is another form of providing education to addicts and advocating their future. Per the research that was conducted in California called enhancing drug court by one drug court it showed tremendous improvement by the services they offered. The services include vocational and educational training which prepares them for employment and stable life. The training was divided into sections that one would choose from for example: residential treatment, specialty programs, alcohol recovery group, mask of addiction The table below shows how the services helped inmates achieve in

Over the last few decades, the American criminal justice system has seen an increase in the amount of drug offenses being committed. While the number of drug offenses have increased, the amount of resources for addicts who are in prison have not. Although it has been made clear that drug abuse and crime are linked, the justice system has continued to punish offenders, rather than allowing them treatment. The lack of resources provided to prisoners who have issues with addiction has contributed to the cycle of recidivism in the American criminal justice system.

In the U.S, five percent of the population is behind bars (Collier). State spending on corrections is estimated at $52 billion a year with most spent on prisons (“The Potential of Community Corrections to Improve Safety and Reduce Incarceration”). The reason for the U.S. prison population increase is because we are sending people to prison for more time and also because of drugs and we have focused on drug dealing and drug possession (Neyfakh). The U.S. Justice System imprisons a lot of people who could have been held accountable in the community like people with addictions or mental illnesses that don’t have access to treatment in their community (“For Immediate Release: How to…”) Although changing the prison system may be controversial

There are many differences between characteristics of the therapeutic community and traditional correctional institutional community. The most significant of these differences would be the role of the offender. In the therapeutic community, offenders have a more active role in their rehabilitation. They are able to impact decisions that are made during the treatment process, (Van Voorhis and Salisbury, 2013:101). In traditional correctional institutions, the counselors play more of an authoritarian role than a democratic one, (Van Voorhis and Salisbury, 2013:101). Considering this difference, the offender might feel more empowered and in control of their rehabilitation in a therapeutic community than in a traditional correctional one.

In 2015, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 19.9 million Americans use illegal drugs and more than half of The U.S. prison population is convicted of a drug related crime (Foundation for a Drug-Free World, 2015). The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world and drug related crimes continue to add to the prison population. Due to the high incarceration rate in the U.S., controversy over the effectiveness of our current drug legislation has emerged (Tyjen Tsai and Paola Scommegna, 2015). Current drug laws focus on imprisonment and isolation for the drug offenders. This creates a cycle of drug related criminality because the laws do not treat the motives for drug related crime. These motives include the money and addiction involved with drug offenses such as abuse, crimes to gain money for drugs, and drug selling. While arguments have been made that current drug laws are needed to ensure the stability of society, the solution to ending the cycle of drug related criminality is to focus on rehabilitation that treats motives for drug offenses by educating and treating addiction for felons. (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2015).

Preview and Thesis: We, the United States of America are the world leaders in incarceration, but sadly according to the webpage Federal Bureau of Prisons, under the section titled “Inmate offenses”, 46.2 percent are behind bars due to minor drug offenses. This can be fixed by implying more rehabilitation programs, eliminating the mandatory minimum sentencing laws, and by decriminalizing drug offenses.

Judging by these statistics, drug abusers, both violent and non-violent, are most at risk to relapse. The reason for this is quite simple. Most of these inmates released on parole never complete any form of rehabilitation program. Proponents of the parole system argue that rehabilitation programs and their success rates make parole a realistic solution. Indeed, there are many great programs that have been started in recent years. For example, the BOP's drug abuse treatment program (DAP), which was started in 1986, has met with astounding results. Parolees who successfully completed this program faced a mere 3.3% chance of being re-arrested in the first 6 months after release, and a much lower 20% relapse into drug use. These people faced a 73% lower chance of being re-arrested compared to those who did not complete this program. In theory this sounds like the solution to everyone's problems. However, what the many

“Over 7 million Americans in 2014 battled a drug use disorder, per NSDUH” (American Addiction Centers). People throughout the U.S suffer from drug abuse problems. About 7 million or more individuals who suffer from drug abuse may be held in prison. Some prisons have programs to treat drug abuse substances. Although though are programs to treat drug abuse, a program that is found to be effective for offenders is the residential drug abuse program. The RDAP helps inmates to recover from their drug abuse situations through the RDAP phases and the offender’s participation.

In today's society more and more people are being sentenced to prison. An increase in repeat convicts has been steadily on the rise. This can strongly be contributed to mental illness, drug abuse, and most importantly the lack of proper rehabilitation.

Nearly half of all state prisoners are drug abusers or drug dependent, but only 10 percent receive medically based drug treatment during incarceration. Untreated or inadequately treated inmates are more likely to resume using drugs when released from prison, and commit crimes at a higher rate than

8). Today, “America is expert at turning citizens into convicts, but we’ve forgotten how to transform convicts back into citizens” (Gonnerman and Brown, p. 45). With the use of these programs, America will be getting convicts ready for their transition back into the community and reducing the chances of them returning to prison. Studies have shown that the use of these programs will be beneficial to saving the taxpayer’s money as well. “The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University estimates a savings to the taxpayer of $10 for every $1 expended when drug treatment in prison is followed by aftercare in the community”(Kaiser, p. 13).

We spend many police and legal resources to investigate, hold trials, and punish drug offenders, and in the last 10 years, the number of drug offenders still remain very high. Also, repeat offenders count for no less than 90% of drug offenders each year from 2007 to 2011 . This data indicates the way we fight drugs is not efficient, and that those who return to society from the correctional facilities is not

Lack of help from the justice system for drug offenders remains an ongoing problem. Since the 1970’s, presidential administrations passed legislation that made it easier to imprison addicts but harder to help them. Drug users often enter the prison system, receive little to no help before release, and end up returning later for repeat offenses. Many in the justice system believe that, once the detoxification process occurs, inmates become sober and able to live productive lives. However, this rings false. The 2014 article by Chicago’s Loyola University’s Olson and Lurigio, “The long-term effects of prison based drug treatment and aftercare services and recidivism” states that “The foundations of sobriety consist of...comprehensive services...in

Prison based substance abuse treatment models are effective to reduce recidivism and decrease the number of offenders habitually abusing substances. Prisoners must be assessed and screened before going into a treatment group. It has been stated that therapeutic communities are one of the best practice for treatment in a prison based setting coinciding with cognitive behavioral treatment with the emphasis on relapse prevention (White, Hall 2004). Inmates should complete 6 weeks of treatment, at the minimal (White, Hall 2004). Optimal outcomes occur when the prisoners also enroll in treatment in their community after they are released to (NIDA, 2006). At all area of treatment substance abuse observing is necessity (NIDA, 2006). Although there