Needs Assessment:
Addiction is a complex phenomenon in today’s society. Many researchers view addiction as a disease of the brain that is influenced by genetic and environmental factors (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). Sixteen percent of the United States population, ages twelve and older are affected by addiction (Volow & Li, 2005). The government’s method of addressing addiction has changed over the years in attempts to treat this disease, however, no method is entirely perfect (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). Addiction can affect any person regardless of age, gender, or economic status (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). The traditional method of addressing addiction was to refer addicts to the criminal justice system (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). Legislatures resorted to mandatory minimum sentences for dealing with drug addicts (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). Addiction used to be viewed as a crime and not as a disease. The prisons and jails were not able to accommodate the high numbers of prisoners and therefore they were forced to release the prisoners (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). In the 1990’s the government started to realize that the number of addicts was not decreasing but instead increasing and therefore they started to resort to treatment rather than punishment. They started placing the addicts in court-ordered treatment facilities (Lessenger & Roper, 2007). One of these court-ordered treatment facilities is the Lancaster drug court. According to the United States Census Bureau the majority of the individuals that resided in Lancaster County in 2012 were white (91.3%) and approximately 10% of the population between 2007 and 2011 where below the poverty level (2013). In 2006, 77 participants were enrolled in the Lancaster Drug Court program. 63.6% w...
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...leas,Adult Drug Court Program. Participant Handbook.
Retrieved from http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/courts/lib/courts/apps/drugcourt/drugcourtclienthandbook.pdf Lessenger, J. J, & Roper, G. F. (2010). Drug Courts a New Approach to Treatment and
Rehabilitation. NY. Springer Science and Business Media.
Mahaffy, K. A. (2006). Lancaster County Court Of Common Pleas Adult Drug Court:
Outcome Evaluation. Millersville University. Retrieved from http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/courts/lib/courts/LCCCP_Drug_court_outcome_eval0506.pdf U.S Census Bureau. (2013). Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Quick Facts. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42071.html
Volkow, N, & Li, T. K. (2005). The Neuroscience of Addiction.Nature Neuroscience
Journal,(8),1429-1430.
Wheeler, L. (1966). Toward a theory of behavioral contagion. Psychological Review, 73(2), 179.
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.
Managing case assignments allows for the offender to have the best opportunities for reintegration into the community as well as for the criminal justice system to successfully supervise the offender. There exist 4 different case assignment models that are used most frequently to provide the offender with his or her most basic needs and services.
Mandatory minimums for controlled substances were first implemented in the 1980s as a countermeasure for the hysteria that surrounded drugs in the era (“A Brief History,” 2014). The common belief was that stiff penalties discouraged people from using drugs and enhanced public safety (“A Brief History,” 2014). That theory, however, was proven false and rather than less illegal drug activity, there are simply more people incarcerated. Studies show that over half of federal prisoners currently incarcerated are there on drug charges, a 116 percent percentage rise since 1970 (Miles, 2014). Mass incarceration is an ever growing issue in the United States and is the result of policies that support the large scale use of imprisonment on
Drug courts were first established in Miami in 1989 and have continued to grow today. Over the past twenty-four years, drug courts have provided a treatment-orientated approach to help defendants with drug-related crimes. The constant interaction of the drug court provides the needed structure for participants to maintain their involvement in the program. Understanding the overall goals of the drug court and the outcomes of participants in the drug court program are the key factors in measuring the success of the drug courts.
What is Drug Court? According to Siegel (2013), drug courts are courts designed for non-violent offenders with substance abuse problems who require integrated sanctions and services such as mandatory drug testing, substance abuse treatment, supervised release, and parole. These courts are designed to help reduce housing nonviolent offenders with violent inmates. Drug courts work on a non-adversarial, coact approach.
While results from drug courts vary, many report a reduction in recidivism rates, drug abuse, judicial and probation caseloads as well as a reduction in cost (Turner et al., 2002; Goldkamp, White & Robinson, 2001). On the basis of the special- ized drug court model, specialized domestic violence courts builds from two legal philosophies of restorative justice and therapeutic jurispru- dence, assessing the positive and negative effects of the legal system on the social and psychological functioning of individuals and reflects a commitment to providing comprehensive services (Tsai,
can become a major source of income, not only for the inmate, but also for
Inciardi, Dr. James A., A Corrections-Based Continuum of Effective Drug Abuse Treatment. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Avialable: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/contdrug.txt
Substance abuse is a national problem. Prisons are overcrowded with these types of offenders. People will do anything to get these drugs ranging from petty theft to murder. People with substance abuse problems know no boundaries. All they think about is how they are going to get that drug for that day. Substance abusers do not care who they hurt or why they hurt them. A lot of people that are addicted hurt the people they love the most like children and parents. People in the prison system that has been convicted of violent crimes most of them say that they were under the influence of some type of drug or alcohol.
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 current situation of drug control in the United States is imperfect and inadequate. Millions of men and women, both young and old, are affected by illicit drug use. It costs the United States about $6,123 every second because of drug use and its consequences (Office). Moreover, 90 percent of all adults with a substance use disorder started using under the age of 18 and half under the age of 15. Children who first smoke marijuana under the age of 14 are five times more likely to abuse drugs as adults than those who first use marijuana at age 18. Finally, the children of alcoholics are four times more likely to develop problems with alcohol (Prevent). Current legislation that has to do with the United States’ drug control policy is the Controlled Substances Act, which regulates the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances (Shannon). In 1966, Congress passed the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act also known as the NARA. This legislati...
Drug abuse and addiction are issues that affect people everywhere. However, these issues are usually treated as criminal activity rather than issues of public health. There is a conflict over whether addiction related to drug abuse is a disease or a choice. Addiction as a choice suggests that drug abusers are completely responsible for their actions, while addiction as a disease suggests that drug abusers need help in order to break their cycle of addiction. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that addiction is a disease, and should be treated rather than punished. Drug addiction is a disease because: some people are more likely to suffer from addiction due to their genes, drug abuse brought on by addictive behavior changes the brain and worsens the addiction, and the environment a person lives in can cause the person to relapse because addiction can so strongly affect a person.
And they rely on the discrimination and skill of a judge.The numerous studies indicate these courts significantly reduce crime and drug use. About half the participants in adult drug court finish the program, although the number varies widely from court to court, often depending on the skill of the judge. Federal judges are now beginning to create programs modeled on the state drug courts that allow for similar alternatives to incarceration for low level drug crimes, according to Dave
The link between drug use and crime is not a new one. For more than twenty years, both the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Justice have funded many studies to try to better understand the connection. One such study was done in Baltimore on heroin users. This study found high rates of criminality among users during periods of active drug use, and much lower rates during periods of nonuse (Ball et al. 1983, pp.119-142). A large number of people who abuse drugs come into contact with the criminal justice system when they are sent to jail or to other correctional facilities. The criminal justice system is flooded with substance abusers. The need for expanding drug abuse treatment for this group of people was recognized in the Crime Act of 1994, which for the first time provided substantial resources for federal and state jurisdictions. In this paper, I will argue that using therapeutic communities in prisons will reduce the recidivism rates among people who have been released from prison. I am going to use the general theory of crime, which is based on self-control, to help rationalize using federal tax dollars to fund these therapeutic communities in prisons. I feel that if we teach these prisoners some self-control and alternative lifestyles that we can keep them from reentering the prisons once they get out. I am also going to describe some of today’s programs that have proven to be very effective. Gottfredson and Hirschi developed the general theory of crime.
Perhaps most substance abuse starts in the teen years when young people are susceptible to pressure from their peers. One of the main concerns when dealing with substance abuse is the long term problems with substance such as addiction, dependency and tolerance. The physical state of an individual, who is addicted to a substance, will deteriorate over a long period of time. This is due to the chemicals that are being put into an individual body. One of the most important aspects of the effect of substance abuse on society includes ill health, disease, sickness, and in many cases death. The impact of substance abuse not only affects individuals who abuse substances but it affects our economy. Our government resources are negatively impacted by individual who abuse substances. According to (Lagliaro 2004) the implication of drug users extend far beyond the user, often damaging their relationships with their family, community, and health workers, volunteer and wider