Drug Problems and a Possible Solution
Historically, drugs in the United States have always been a problem. A solution to end the drug epidemic has never been implemented; instead, people who are caught with a controlled substance are incarcerated. These individuals do not receive any rehabilitation services in order to overcome this addiction and become a functional member of society. As a result of punitive laws for drug possession crimes, individuals carry a stigma of being a criminal who is unable to contribute to society. The stigma in effect causes the released individual to have a more difficult time while seeking employment which in turn hurts the economy. When an individual finds themselves being stuck in a situation where employers refuse to hire them, they tend to relapse and end up right where they started. Drugs are always going to be around no matter how hard people try to stop it, so instead of resorting to the incarceration of first time offenders for petty drug possession crimes, resources should instead be allocated to the creation of an effective reform program to provide an alternative form of curtailing the drug problem while maintaining the state of the economy. The United states is the most jailingest country on the planet. Among Saudi Arabia, Russia and other countries, the U.S. has the highest population rate.
Causes and Consequences of Determine Sentencing
Before the 1960’s, America’s correctional facilities were designed to improve the lives of its prisoners through rehabilitation programs. The main purpose of these rehabilitation programs was to educate criminals about their former behaviors and enlighten them as to how they could further develop and convert into moral, working class civilians. Inmates exposed to such services were eventually released and became successful since they were able to join the workforce and contribute to their local communities. By the 1970’s, this practice would come under fire due to racial discrimination. The practice was allegedly primarily tailored to aid only white males to return to society. Inmates who did not fit into this description were given little to no help in returning to society. Therefore, determinate sentencing was implemented to counteract the special treatment of some inmates. The criminal justice system was judged for its leniency solely based on gender and race. When drugs laws started to come into place, they were enforced to get certain races out of the way of society. The laws were based more off of fear of violence so much as to the fear of the drugs themselves.
In the 1980s, this new sentencing system would require people convicted of drug charges to fully complete a mandatory five-year sentence for carrying five grams of crack cocaine as a result of “Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988” (Garland, p.6) Sentencing guidelines state this practice would not be lenient regardless if the person found guilty did not have a prior criminal record. In the next decade, determinate sentencing was utilized for the “war on drugs,” one of the major objectives of the Reagan administration. In fact, the allocation of monetary resources towards the war against drugs became more than five times greater in this decade compared to the past decade. The war on drugs has not led to anything in America, but has made it worse. According to a White House report conducted in 1992, “[f]ederal funding for the drug war soared from $1.5 billion in 1981 to $6.6 billion in 1989” (Garland, p.6 ). As a result of the severe penalties the federal government was imposing, an influx of incarcerations led to the overcrowding of prisons across the country. This same year, Bill Clinton advocated for treatment instead of incarceration but then reverted to the “drug war” strategies.
In 1980 to 1996, changes in the severity of punishment led to the rise of the national prison population by 88 percent, yet the crime rate only rose by 12 percent (Blumstein and Beck, 1999). When George W. Bush entered office, he allocated more money to the drug war than any other president had. By the end of his presidency there were about 40,000 paramilitary-style SWAT raids on Americans nearly every year, the majority over non-violent drug offences (“A Brief History of the Drug War,” n.d.). The rise in the national prison population is not proportional to the small increase in crime rate. These statistics are indicative of harsh laws that were implemented during the Reagan administration and are still in effect today. People who are convicted of a drug offense experience longer sentences than offenders who were convicted of the same crime prior to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Sentencing policies are clearly a key factor to the overpopulation of prisons since the United States’ commencement of the War on Drugs. Moreover, the current sentencing policies are related to overpopulation as inmates are required to serve longer sentences for crimes related to drugs, even for minor possessions of illegal substances. Nonviolent drug offenders, even first time offenders, often end up with the same sentencing as an inmate with a more serious crime. Some of these offenders have never even touched these drugs, they just sell them to make a living when they cannot find employment elsewhere and still get a maximum sentencing. Nonviolent offenders can even get life in prison without parole. Drug laws have become so harsh that even the nonviolent offenders can now be locked up with sentences reserved for violent crimes. This trend will more than likely continue if the current sentencing policies are not reformed. For instance, a more lax punishment for minor offenses, such as the possession of marijuana, should be implemented in order to reduce the congested prisons across the nation.
Economic Detriments of Determinate Sentencing
The U.S. economy is under threat due to the large and increasing prison population. According to a recent report, civilians pay up to $260 per year for correctional services compared to $77 in 1980. (Kearney, M. S., Harris, B. H., Jacome, E., & Parker, L. (n.d.). This surge in spending should concern civilians because the country's system of incarceration is not producing the desired results of reforming inmates’ behaviors, which would imply decreasing their likelihood of re-engaging in criminal activity. Furthermore, the report states that although incarceration rates regarding the possession and selling of drugs have increased since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, property and violent crimes have declined 45 percent over the past two decades. Despite the decreasing of the overall rate of criminal activities, the current incarceration system has condemned inmates with longer sentences. The report also stated that in order to properly function, the incarceration system requires the monetary allocation of 80 billion dollars a year to cover the maintenance of facilities, staff employees, and inmates’ basic needs (food, health care, among others). The massive costs mean less resources are available for other social institutions such as education. Economies would be so much stronger if they focused their budgets more on stronger issues that can boost their economic growth, rather than misdemeanors or first time drug offenders which can be settled in an easier fashion. The more inmates that go to jail, the higher the cost. This means making budget cuts in education for young adults and children in low poverty neighborhoods. Some police departments operate on the money being confiscated by drug offenders. The money that is being spent on drug enforcement has rocketed. Incarceration rates continue to rise because they are sending larger amounts of first time offenders to jail instead of sending them to rehabilitation centers or to programs that would help reduce recidivism. Incarceration rates have tripled in 36 states since 1978 (Changing Priorities, 2017). High incarceration rates not only effects a family, it also effects the community; by denying social and economical opportunities to a person who comes out of jail and them not being able to find employment, it causes not being able to build a strong and stable community. The economy would benefit so much by having treatment centers for drug offenders instead of incarcerating them because the cost of helping them get treated is so much lower than having them in jail for a non-violent crime. There are various alternatives to incarceration that could help save money, protect the public, and bring down crime rates. Many feel that if they were to give an offender an alternative punishment that it would mean them just getting a “slap on the wrist” but this is not the case. Over incarceration is not making us safer, it is just taking more money away from what should be a main priority.
Difficulties While Seeking Employment
Spending time behind bars has also affected the way an employer might view an individual who has applied for an open position. By being convicted of a crime, this might influence an employer’s perspective and lead them to believe that the applicant under review is untrustworthy. “Evidence for the stigma of conviction was provided by experiments in which employers were sent fictitious letters of job applications containing information about the conviction status of job applicants” (Boshier & Johnson, 1974). Employers were less likely to be interested in convicts than those who did not provide information about their past criminal records. For instance, recent survey data indicates that, “employers would be more likely to hire welfare recipients or applicants with little work experience than ex-convicts,” thus alluding to the fact that American employers would rather hire unskilled workers rather than skilled workers who have criminal records (Holzer, Harry J. 1996). Those who do find employment after incarceration, typically make less than others who have not been convicted of a crime at the same job. The majority of the inmates have never had self respect for themselves, or have had fake self respect, giving them skills or into rehabilitation centers will give them the chance to feel better leading them to wanting to do something better with their lives when they get out of jail. With the lack of being able to find employment comes the lack of an income, which leads them to being homeless. When inmates leave jail, they leave with a trail that follows them for the rest of their life restricting them from so much. For everything a person applies for they have to put that they were convicted with a felon and it prevents them from getting governmental help, jobs, going to school to further their education. Therefore, since former convicts are very unlikely to obtain employment due to their criminal record, they tend to re-engage in crime or end up living in the streets or in a shelter. Jails fail to provide inmates with a program for housing, employment or any kind of services leaving them with nothing. This contributes to the problem on homelessness in America. When a person is on the streets without any of these resources to help them get on their feet they tend to either live from shelter to shelter or engage in criminal activity just so they can end up back in jail where they get fed and feel safer.
Familial Consequences
For being in possession of a very small amount of drugs, such as two grams of marijuana one can find themselves to be arrested. By law, the officer is obligated to arrest the suspect instead of writing he or she a simple citation. The arrest will be very costly to the department and to the person, while a citation (on the other hand) would have little costly effects. In addition, he or she might also lose their employment because they will be unable to attend work the following day if they are not consequently released. Additionally, an arrest may cause strain within the family and affect their budget. For instance, if the head of the household is incarcerated, other members of the family will be unable to obtain the funds to pay for their daily necessities. In the most common occurrence the arrest will cause the family to seek government aid. The constant government spending will never end if solutions are not implemented. There are so many children growing up without one of their parents because of this system. Someone that makes a mistake by having drugs can get a drastic sentencing causing a child to not see their parent, this then causes the child problems in the long run. More often than others, it is mostly the male head of the house hold who gets incarcerated and not given a second chance, a child needs a father figure around. Children whose parents are incarcerated tend end up either in foster care, in an institution or following in their parents’ footsteps as they grow up. When a child grows up having no one caring what they do, they turn to what they see around them and what to them is regular which to them can be either drugs and gangs. Rather than hurting or separating a family, they should be allowed a second chance to make things right with their families and show their kids what is right and what is wrong from their personal experiences so that we can prevent them from ending up incarcerated as well. A study showed that 2.7 million children have a parent behind bars, raising the likelihood of them being poor (Changing Priorities, 2017). Instead of arresting first time offenders caught with two ounces of marijuana or less, our government should create a stabilizing program. The objective of such program would be to allow nonviolent drug users an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and avoid conviction. Such a program would also reduce the influx of inmates being incarcerated into prison due to drug violations, thus preventing the over saturation of prison populations. Therefore, by reducing the population in jails, monetary allocations needed for these facilities would also decrease. This now available money would be useful to allow citizens to become healthier and avoid the collateral effects of incarceration such as being unemployed once they are released. The program would facilitate suspects who agree to the drug program. These individuals would no longer be taken into custody, nor would they have to go to court or face criminal charges if they stay complete the program and stay drug free for a given amount of time. Drug laws punish more the individual and their loved ones than they do to amount the serious effort of drug abuse.
Conclusion
These first-time drug offenders have done the time they needed to serve and should now be allowed to work just as every other single person in America has the opportunity to. As a country, the United States needs to realize that everyone makes mistakes and everyone who is caught with a small possession of a controlled substance should be given a second chance. Without this second chance, many of these drug offenders who are trying to better themselves will never be capable of doing so. Not having a second chance can hurt their self-esteem in many ways, as can it hurt their families as well. These convicts will instead return to the streets and continue to commit drug related crimes, our prison rates will continue to rise and our economy will keep suffering. Laws made towards drugs were aimed at certain races, even today, Mexican Americans and Black individuals still get harsher treatment when it comes to drugs. People use drugs because they want to feel get a satisfaction that they are missing and do not know how to fill. Instead of trying to figure out the source of what is it that they are going through, they are put in a jail to feel more pain than they did before, they have no one to talk to about their problem and no longer have a way to fill the void they have. So many people either end up in jail for a non-violent drug offense or end up dead because of drugs by either suicide or a fight over drugs. The war against drugs is a war that has never really been so much about the drugs and is one that will never be won. The use of illegal drugs has remained unchanged in time. What drugs haven’t already destroyed, the drug against them will. Incarceration non-violent offenders creates a cyclic burden on society that drains resources and it also imposes huge costs on tax-payers as these inmates must be housed, fed, monitored, sentenced, and arrested. There will always be consequences for actions, but a punishment should fit the crime that has been done.