...Drug Treatment for Offenders Nicole Myers 20700 CRIJ 1304 Probation and Parole Abstract The addiction to drugs is a difficult thing for any individual to deal with. Often, addiction leads to the decline of a person’s well-being, financial security, and health. Drug addicts have a hard time keeping a job, their families suffer the consequences, and sometimes the addicts find themselves either in trouble with the law, or homeless on the street. There is an epidemic of almost epic proportions in this wonderful nation called the United States. However, this epidemic is not only national; it is worldwide. And because of this epidemic there are other problems in society such as an increase in crime and prison overcrowding. The epidemic is that of Substance Abuse and Addiction. The penal systems of each state house more prisoners due to drug related crimes than any other. Treatment instead of incarceration would be beneficial to the addict himself and to society as a whole. Evidence shows treatment would lower the amount of criminal activity due to substance abuse and addiction. Logic shows that if a problem is cured then the consequences of the problem disappear. There are different points of view on the subject of treatment or incarceration for those criminals who are substance abusers. And there are valid points in either argument. The viewpoint in favor of incarceration is supported by the deterrence and incapacitation theory. This theory promotes increased arrests, prosecutions...
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...Do Prisons Work? Can Individuals be Reformed or Rehabilitated through Incarceration and Treatment Programs. Critically examine the Current Treatment Programs offered and Subsequent Impact on Recidivism upon Individuals being released globally and WA specifically. This study will examine the effectiveness of current prison treatment programs in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, United States of America in rehabilitating or reforming an individual and coinciding recidivism rates upon a prisoners release. Prison based treatment programs for sex offenders in Western Australia, New South Wales and New Zealand are examined and recidivism rates compared. Treatment programs for offenders with drug and alcohol issues and the various strategies within the criminal justice system such as diversion, education and drug court programs are examined and differences explained. Rehabilitation programs such as education, life skills, employment and cognitive behavioural treatment are explained and research discussed. Conclusions will be drawn outlining programs with the highest level of recidivism both in Western Australia and globally. The “nothing works” mantra (Martinson) 1974, is seen to be refuted and treatment is seen to be successful when it is matched to the criminogenic needs of the offender (MacKenzie, 2006). Future recommendations are made in regards to the need for correctional staff to assess each offender as an individual with different needs, and to therefore...
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...Throughout the semester, we have covered many angles of the world of prison. These stories, documentaries, and television shows have provided valuable insight into addressing stereotypes that prisoners are labeled with, as well as many of the issues with our current prison system. One of the main stereotypes that exists is that prisoners with drug addictions are helpless and will do anything they can to feed their addictions. These portrayals can been seen almost everywhere in the mainstream media, from television shows to popular literature. They have a large impact on how the general public views these people, and provides an inaccurate view of how these individuals really are. In the show Orange is the New Black, prisoners with drug addictions,...
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...Community Corrections or Incarceration Are community corrections a better solution than incarceration? Michelle Brooks ITT Technical Institute Community Corrections or Incarceration Abstract In this research paper will read about different subjects and topics that pertain to incarceration and community corrections. The incarceration rate is going up in the United States while at the same time community corrections is slowly fading away because of limited support from the local communities and government officials within each state. In this research I hope to find out those community corrections has more to offer than incarceration. In conclusion incarceration is not the right way but community corrections will be. Community Corrections or Incarceration Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Background on Community Corrections Background on Incarceration Effectives of Community Corrections Effectives of Incarceration Programs dealing with Community Corrections Programs while Incarcerated Theory Interview with Mr. Sharron Wilson Result Reference Page Community Corrections or Incarceration Introduction Community Corrections is a better solution than incarceration because it offers many different alternative programs for several different types of offenders. Incarceration also offers similar programs...
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...Today, prisons all over the world is overpopulated and most of the expenses are paid in account on the taxpayers’ behalf. Some inmates are not necessarily criminals, but prison seems to be the solution to anybody that slightly troubled the law. In Julia Sudbury’s Maroon Abolitionists, anti-prison groups strongly discouraged the Prison-Industrial Complex and worked against it to prevent private corporations from making profits and focused to imply a correctional facility to better the individual. With significant increases in population of inmates yearly, it is crucial to seek improvement in correcting the system and treated with fair access. Prison-Industrial Complex (PIC) is an interaction that shares interest of all who helps expand the prison system for personal profits, from monetary profits, political power, control of resources, ownership of properties, etc… It is a system where the private corporate put their self before others and for personal benefits. Inmates are often discriminated based on their race, gender, or culture so the private prison companies can reach their potential power. In Julia Sudbury, Maroon Abolitionists, she showed that the U.S. currently incarcerates approx. 2.3 million people, similarly 762 per 100,000. There are 167,000 prisoners in all of California. 60% of those incarcerated in prison are an ethnic minority. Statistics showed that three quarters of all inmates for drug related offenses are people of color. 1 in every 8 black males in their...
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...the proper treatment of incarcerated women is an underrepresented issue of utmost importance. Despite having established rules, regulations and codes of conduct regarding the matter, a large number of these women fall victim to inadequate healthcare and rehabilitation programs, sexual violation and overcrowding amongst others. In many a country incarcerated pregnant women are still shackled while delivering their babies and some only get to see their child once. Lack of efficient prison systems gives people who were imprisoned due to their drug habits a flowing supply of drugs. The problem, therefore, lies in the implementation of the set rules and regulations rather than the making of these regulations. Brazil has strongly backed treaties like the International Covenant on...
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... CJA-234 Rehabilitation in prison it is a part of a process of bettering offenders and preventing them from further criminal activity and behavior. The goal of rehabilitation is to re-shape the individuals and prepare them to enter the society with a different state of mind and start a new distant from the crime life.” In modern penology, the real purpose of sending criminals to prison is to transform them into honest and law abiding citizens by inculcating in them distaste for crime and criminality” (US-China Law Review; Mar2010, Vol. 7 Issue 3, p15-29, 15p). In United States of America the correction system provides many programs that are designed in order to rehabilitate inmates. Some of those programs include religion related services like Bible study groups or religious congregations. The other forms can include art crafts, sports, found raising activities or prison work assignments. For those offenders that are struggling with addictions, there are drug and alcohol treatment programs that offer anonymous group meetings. Also, definitely as a one of very supportive programs is visitation with family and nonfamily outsiders. Parole it is a supervision that offender receives after being released from the prison. It is a similar to probation method of supervision when it comes to its conditions. Just like on probation, while on parole the convict has to obey the law, stay away from substances like drugs and alcohol and report to his or her officer until...
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...Crime, Organized Crime, Illicit Drugs and Violence. Illicit drugs affect everyone. They may cause family problems, health problems even effort jobs or your performance. Even with the use of drugs that may have to be swallowed or even injected into your own body could increase chances of obtaining the HIV virus. But drugs that we smoke like marijuana could cause lung cancer. Illicit drugs can also affect the brain, by causing the brain cells to die and in cases resulting in permanent brain damage. The abuse of drugs also affect the economy, people using drugs are accident waiting to happen. Each year drug uses is the cause of a large number of accidents at home, office and on the roads. Everybody pays the price of drug abuse more cops and prisons more hospitals and treatment centers and many lives lost. Australia has approximately one drug overdose death each year. Broadly speaking, the prevalence of illicit drugs has been falling since the late 1990’s though some drugs have increased over that period. The authoritative reports below will summaries the trends as follows. In 2010, approximately 15% of the national population 14 years and above had used one or more illicit drugs in the past 12 months, with Cannabis the most commonly used illicit drug (10.3%), followed by MDMA (ecstasy),(3.0%) and amphetamines and cocaine (each used by 21%). Non – medical pharmaceutical use (0.2% to 0.4%). Just by using drugs they become part of the drug world. They are already committing...
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...JUSTICE JOHN FERRANTE May 2, 2013 Introduction Correctional inmates engage in drug-related and sexual risk behaviors, and the transmission of HIV, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted diseases occurs in correctional facilities. However, there is uncertainty about the extent of transmission, and hyperbolic descriptions of its extent may further stigmatize inmates and elicit punitive responses. Whether infection was acquired within or outside correctional facilities, the prevalence of HIV and other infectious diseases is much higher among inmates than among those in the general community, and the burden of disease among inmates and releases is disproportionately heavy. A comprehensive response is needed, including voluntary counseling and testing on request that is linked to high-quality treatment, disease prevention education, substance abuse treatment, and discharge planning and transitional programs for releases. General area being studied Sexual activity among inmates is a complex phenomenon that occurs along a continuum, from the entirely consensual to the violently coerced. The New York Times detailed a gang-run system of sexual slavery in a Texas prison, where at least 1 gay inmate claimed he was bought and sold numerous times and “forced into oral sex and anal sex on a daily basis.”9 Recent federal legislation called for research into the prevalence...
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...JUSTICE JOHN FERRANTE May 2, 2013 Introduction Correctional inmates engage in drug-related and sexual risk behaviors, and the transmission of HIV, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted diseases occurs in correctional facilities. However, there is uncertainty about the extent of transmission, and hyperbolic descriptions of its extent may further stigmatize inmates and elicit punitive responses. Whether infection was acquired within or outside correctional facilities, the prevalence of HIV and other infectious diseases is much higher among inmates than among those in the general community, and the burden of disease among inmates and releases is disproportionately heavy. A comprehensive response is needed, including voluntary counseling and testing on request that is linked to high-quality treatment, disease prevention education, substance abuse treatment, and discharge planning and transitional programs for releases. General area being studied Sexual activity among inmates is a complex phenomenon that occurs along a continuum, from the entirely consensual to the violently coerced. The New York Times detailed a gang-run system of sexual slavery in a Texas prison, where at least 1 gay inmate claimed he was bought and sold numerous times and “forced into oral sex and anal sex on a daily basis.”9 Recent federal legislation called for research into the prevalence...
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...“[c]ounties that made fewer drug arrests, and concentrated their enforcement efforts on felony manufacture or sale rather than simple drug-possession offences were significantly more likely to experience declines in violent crime.... Counties that rarely imprisoned low-level drug offences showed the largest reduction in violent and property crime” (pp. 10–11). Minor drug arrests appear to have “no relationship to, and no impact on, either crime or drug abuse” (p. 14). Notably, Californians voted by a 61%–39% margin in 2000 to require drug treatment instead of jail for those arrested for drug possession or use. Indeed, it would appear that they have learned that they are not getting “value for money” from the billions of dollars being spent to imprison small drug-users. In fact, California voters were not alone in demanding reform of harsh drug laws: there were drug policy issues on ballots in seven states in the recent election, and in five of them, harsh drug laws were voted out. Combined with the long-term drop in crime (especially violent crime) that has taken place over the past ten to fifteen years, as well as the budget crises at the state level, this gradual recognition in the US of the enormous costs of harsh sentences, with little criminal justice benefits, has — in fact — led to a decline in support for prisons as a one-(jumbo)-size-fits-all solution. As King and Mauer (2002) noted already in 2002, this decline in the attractiveness of prisons as political institutions...
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...to prison. Women commit crime and are incarcerated under different circumstances and reasons than men. Their criminal behavior can be attributed to drug abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse and poverty. Women who are admitted into prison facilities are disadvantaged from the very beginning; prisons are calculated and planned for our male counterparts because in history men have made up the proportion of our high prison populace. It is hard to meet the needs of women prisoners when the facilities are not custom-made for them. Prisons for women should be geared with programming to help these women deal with obstacles they are facing in their daily lives. But because there are fewer women in prison, the health services that are given to them are typically nominal as compared to males. One of the biggest problems for women in prison is that they are disproportionately affected by human immunodeficiency virus commonly known as HIV. There is a tangible need to address the problem with HIV positive incarcerated women. (Reyes, 2001) Female prisoners make up about five percent of our overall prison population but as time has passed their numbers have increased at a rapid pace. In countries where substance abuse is high and drug laws have become harsher, we can see a correlation between women and imprisonment. About one in a half million will be incarcerated each year worldwide. Our prison system is already overburdened; we are admitting women to overcrowded and understaffed prisons where...
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...Community Corrections Research Project Ethan Ray CCJS 201 Introduction to Corrections 20 April 2015 What is community based corrections? “Community based corrections are sanctions imposed on convicted adults or adjudicated juveniles that occur in a residential or community setting outside of jail or prison. The sanctions are enforced by agencies or courts with legal authority over the adult or juvenile offenders. Community corrections programs are generally operated by probation agencies (correctional supervision within the community instead of incarceration) and parole agencies (conditional, supervised release from prison).” (National Institute of Justice, 2015) These community based corrections are most of the time for lower level offenders. These offenders have committed crimes, but are not harsh enough crimes to be put into a prison where they are under constant security. These individuals in these programs may have just got out of prison, or have charges against them that only required the supervision or a probation officer. They may also be able to get help with drug and alcohol problems, grief and bereavement issues, and depression or self- esteem issues. These programs are offered and the Federal, State, and local levels. We will be discussing a program that is at the State/Local level. I currently reside in the state of Florida so I have decided to do the community corrections of Florida as a whole. This way we can take a look at every aspect that the Florida...
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... June 6, 2013 Prison Rehabilitation Prison rehabilitation are programs that inmates are put through in order to try and change their way of thinking and behavior pattern so that they are able to function without criminal activities once they are released back into the community. These programs may consist of counseling for drug and substance abusers as well. Rehabilitation programs are considered essential in reducing the number of repeat offenders. Criminal rehabilitation is also thought to help in reducing the issues of prisons being over crowded. The more inmates that are able to take advantage of the resources that are given to them the less likely they are to return back to prison. While most individuals will argue that those who break the law deserve what sentence they are given, offering rehabilitation is not only beneficial for the community but society as well. Unless these inmates are given a life sentence it is imperative that they receive some forms of rehab in order to maintain a normal life style that doesn’t affect the community in a negative way. Rehabilitation techniques vary according to the nature of the offender, the type of offence they may have committed, and the institution in which they have been sentenced to. Techniques vary from educational and vocational training to help the offender learn a skill for use outside the prison, to psychological rehabilitation, dealing with various problems the individual...
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...female incarceration rates, growing 832% from 1977 to 2007 with an astounding 4% of women in state prisons and 3% of women in federal prisons pregnant at the time of admittance (Women’s Prison Association 4). Lives are at stake. Every court decision, every judgment cast, effects more than just the individual involved. The future is dependent on how society treats the present. In order to combat the crisis, it is vital to understand its origins and its impact; from this understanding, alternatives that consider the health and well being of all involved can be formulated and delivered. The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, but boasts the overwhelming figure of almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners (Liptak 1). With nearly 2.3 million bars, one in 100 American adults is locked up. “Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America's extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net” (Liptak 1). Another crucial point is that U.S. sentences are longer and more harsh than the rest of the industrialized world. This is devastatingly true, especially in regards to the drug war. The shocking rise in the feminization of the U.S. prison system is linked to the punishments for non-violent offenses. The Women’s...
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