Recidivism is a growing problem the affects everyone in the United States. Inmates are not prepared for reentry for numerous reasons, but one major reason for many is substance abuse. An unbelievable number of prisoners are substance abusers, and if they are not treated it will potentially lead ex-prisoners back into a correctional facility. The Residential Drug Abuse Treatment (RDAP) is a program provided by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to treat inmates with substance addictions. In addition to the treatment of addicts, the program assists with decreasing the recidivism rate which helps solve overcrowding in prison and save money for taxpayers. Such outcomes by the RDAP program is beneficial to prisoners and non-prisoners. The Residential …show more content…
In his article, “We can’t afford to ignore drug addiction in prison,” David Sack states, “Addiction is a chronic illness that needs long term care… Prison just buys a little time before the addict relapses and re-offends, perpetuating the cycle and hurting himself along with the rest of us. It’s a good incentive to look beyond incarceration for solutions to society’s ills…Let’s…make a real commitment to seeing how much we can accomplish with effective addiction treatment.” Sack establishes that addiction is a medical condition that causes addicts to be more likely to recidivate. People should be welcoming ex-prisoners as returning members of society instead of ignoring them, allowing them to commit another crime, and be reincarcerated- only to repeat the cycle. Sack proposes the simple solution of actively supporting prison treatments for addicts. RDAP is the perfect program to be supported, because it provides the necessary treatment to prevent prisoners from relapsing once they are released. By supporting RDAP, the recidivism rate lowers as inmates are given the opportunity to return as citizens who are healthy and able to contribute to …show more content…
Therefore, RDAP also focuses on behavior modification to help prisoners with successful reentry. The Bureau of Prisons describe RDAP as “an intensive nine month treatment program where offenders experience living in a pro-social community. Offenders live in a unit separate from general population; they participate in half-day programming and half-day work, school, or vocational activities.” RDAP’s program description illustrates that the goal, besides addiction treatment, is teaching prisoners behaviors to help them transition into a non-prison community. In the Youtube video,“Federal Prison ‘RDAP Program,’” ex-prisoner Daniel Wise says the program “did not focus as much on drug addiction as it did on behavior modification… and checking your thinking.” “Checking you thinking” means to evaluate one's own action- whether it is right or wrong. Wise provides an example where something trivial like stealing a piece of chicken is highly looked down upon, and the RDAP community holds inmates accountable for their actions. An RDAP solution might be to assign a lunch partner to that inmate to prevent anymore stealing. Wise says, “Regardless… whether it’s chicken or a million dollars at a bank… it’s that [criminal] thinking” that will send people back into jails. The point of the RDAP community is to remove criminal behaviors while in prison, so that inmates will not act upon
“Effective programming requires money, effort, and a recommitment to rehabilitation. But it is not only an investment in safe prisons and jails. It is also an investment in safe and healthy communities” (Gibbons and Katzenbach 28). Rehab is critical to overcome the consequence of binging incarcerated puts limits on the individual’s social, and economic opportunities after being released.
Within our society, there is a gleaming stigma against the drug addicted. We have been taught to believe that if someone uses drugs and commits a crime they should be locked away and shunned for their lifetime. Their past continues to haunt them, even if they have changed their old addictive ways. Everyone deserves a second chance at life, so why do we outcast someone who struggles with this horrible disease? Drug addiction and crime can destroy lives and rip apart families. Drug courts give individuals an opportunity to repair the wreckage of their past and mend what was once lost. Throughout this paper, I will demonstrate why drug courts are more beneficial to an addict than lengthy prison sentences.
As offenders are diverted to community residential treatment centers, work release programs and study release centers, the system sees a decrease or stabilization of the jail population. While the alleviation of overcrowding is a benefit it is not the only purpose of diversion. A large majority of crimes are committed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Studies have shown that more than half of all individuals arrested in the United States will test positive for illegal substances (NCVC, 2008). Efforts to reduce crime through incarceration usually fail because incarceration does not address the main problem, the offender’s substance abuse.
As you might already be aware there is a ballot initiative on this upcoming November’s election about drugs, and drug treatment. This measure is called Proposition 36. If this measure were to pass, state law would be changed, so that certain non-violent adult offenders who use or possess illegal drugs would receive drug treatment and supervision in the community, not prison. Right now California is ranked number one in the nation for its rate of imprisonment for drug offenders. If Proposition 36 passes, California could become number one for its treatment for drug offenders. The measure also provides state funds to counties to operate the drug treatment programs. Additionally, studies have shown that drug treatment is a far more effective than prison in reducing future criminal activity. Robert Roseman, a 51-year-old heroin addict from Sacramento says, “I was always able to get drugs in prison…all you’re going to learn in prison is to do crime better.”
Once these individuals in rehab serve there sentence the majority of them, won’t look straight to the next opportunity to get high, but the next opportunity for a better future after being encouraged in rehab to accomplish something in life, compared to someone’s attitude coming out of prison. One story involved a man named Richard with his wife Marcia. She was an addict who was often jailed for it, but Anthony believed like many others that “addiction can be overcome with proper help. He believed that the solution was to get her into a mental hospital [and] get her whatever she needs – Xanax, morphine, to get her chemical imbalance right. Show her some respect. (114)” Give her some working skills, so once she gets out she is capable of being successful but instead she kept getting “kicked down the steps” by the criminal justice system. The jailing and torture of addicts is routine to people serving cases for drug related offenses, who are often not built to endure prison, let alone jail. “The Justice Department estimates that 216,000 people are raped in these prisons every year. (This is the number of rapes, not the number of rapes – that is much higher.) (109)” This is ultimately shows the simple fact that many people are not built to endure
Policymakers on the national, state, and local levels are always finding ways to improve the nature of the reentry process. The reentry process starts in correctional facilities and helps inmates prepare themselves for release and proceeds with their transition back into society as law-abiding citizens. In comparison to the average American, ex-offenders tend to be less educated, less likely to gain employment, suffer from substance abuse, or have been diagnosed with a mental illness. All of these aspects discussed are shown to be risk factors for recidivism, which is the tendency that causes criminals to re-offend. Generally, the offender reintegration process needs to be improved by properly monitoring the outcomes for reentry programs in order to return prisoners back to society safely.
In recent years, there has been controversy over mass incarceration rates within the United States. In the past, the imprisonment of criminals was seen as the most efficient way to protect citizens. However, as time has gone on, crime rates have continued to increase exponentially. Because of this, many people have begun to propose alternatives that will effectively prevent criminals from merely repeating their illegal actions. Some contend that diversion programs, such as rehabilitation treatment for drug offenders, is a more practical solution than placing mentally unstable individuals into prison.
While living as an inmate in a prison, it is likely that one would go through some sort of transformation. While some go to prison and become reformed while showing the desire to change their life around, others may have a negative change. This negative change could include becoming more volatile and violent as a result of harsh prison treatment or prolonged isolation from the public. In a popular reality show, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, cast member Joe Giudice recently spoke of his plans for going to prison for tax fraud, saying “You either learn how to become a criminal, or a better person. So, I’m going to try to become a better person.” These differing changes can be seen in the prison writings of Robert Beck and Jack Henry Abbott.
Aftercare programs are used often with juveniles in hopes of preventing recidivism. Recidivism is of high concern to the criminal justice system in that the safety of the public depends on low recidivism rates. Juvenile Incarceration facilities have programs set up, such as education and pro-social behavior classes, to promote bettering the juvenile’s life. However, research has shown that the progress made while incarcerated slowly declines upon release. This is testimony to the importance of aftercare programs in preventing recidivism.
Works Cited Federal Bureau of Prisons : http://www.bop.gov/ Inciardi, Dr. James A., A Corrections-Based Continuum of Effective Drug Abuse Treatment. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Available: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/contdrug.txt. Butterfield, Fox. The "Prison: Where the Money Is."
Right now in the United States there are over 2 million people incarcerated in the country’s prisons and jails. Out of this population about one-quarter of these inmates have been convicted of a drug offense. With drug offense arrests increasing nationwide and the prison population increasing there is an alternative to incarceration has been used over the past two decades in many cities across the country. This alternative is in the form of local drug courts that are now found in most major cities in the United States. A drug court is a specialized court in which the judge, prosecutor, public defender or private attorney, probation officers, and treatment counselors work together to help chemically dependent offenders obtain needed treatment and rehabilitation in an attempt to break the cycle of addiction and further criminal offenses. Some argue that treatment rather than incarceration is a waste of time and valuable resources that could be used elsewhere. Research however has shown that court ordered treatment is the best option for drug offenders. Treatments through drug court has proven to be less expensive than incarceration and has also been shown to reduce crime and provide a lower relapse and re-arrest rate for offenders that are placed in drug courts as opposed to those that are not.
The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies of the 1970s – 1980s have caused an over populated prison system where incarceration is policy and assistance for prevention was placed on the back burner. As of 2005, a little fewer than 2,000 prisoners are being released every day. These individuals have not gone through treatment or been properly assisted in reentering society. This has caused individuals to reenter the prison system after only a year of being release and this problem will not go away, but will get worst if current thinking does not change. This change must be bigger than putting in place some under funded programs that do not provide support. As the current cost of incarceration is around $30,000 a year per inmate, change to the system/procedure must prevent recidivism and the current problem of over-crowed prisons.
for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).
United States offenders are not hopeless. Each offender needs individualized therapy that will cater to the root cause of delinquency and each offender has different educational needs. Many offenders need therapy to change the way they think and how they view the world around them. These changes are not going to happen alone and cannot possibly happen with a cookie cutter program. In order to reduce the rate of recidivism and successfully reintegrate offenders into the community, all services must lead to the bettering of an individual and aiding them in successfully staying in the community, not simply reentering into the community.
Substance abuse is a grim issue that affects the Canadian inmate population; it can be defined as overindulgence in or dependence on an addictive substance, especially alcohol or drugs. Within Canada, 80% of offenders entering the federal prison system are identified as having a substance abuse problem (MacPherson, 2004); this goes beyond mere indication of tougher drug legislation, it uncovers further discrepancy. Due to the immense majority of offenders affected by this complex mental illness, in addition to varied levels of individual cognitive ability. Consequently conventional abstinence-based treatment methods may not benefit all offenders. Untreated, this dynamic risk factor precursor’s future offending, as a study reveals dependency on illegal drugs is the single most serious risk for repeated offending (MacPherson, 2004). It has been established substance control is a far more feasible short term goal than outright eradication. With this ideology, the premise of one’s analysis will be on substance abuse control methodologies, gauging effectiveness and overall success in achieving its purpose.