The demographic group most affected by the war on drugs and the incarceration boom are the juveniles. Youth who turn to drugs and alcohol abuse are faced with harsh reality at YSI Facilities, another branch of the private prison industry. Rather than being charged with fines appropriate to their offenses and being sent to rehabilitation or other forms of drug treatment, non-violent offenders are locked away with long, harsh sentences. This profit-driven war on drugs and other substance abuse ruins the lives of the inmates, turning them into harder criminals by exposing them to such environments. According to a project run by The Huffington Post, 40% of juvenile offenders sent to private prisons on account of drug related crimes are arrested and convicted of harsher crimes in less than a year from their release (Kirkham).
Fighting drug abuse is draining our economic resources. The United States spend thirty billion dollars out of a total of thirty-eight billion dollars in corrections nationwide on people who had a history of drug abuse, convicted of drug violations, or were using drugs at the time of their arrest. (oathout). This statistic shows that a majority of our correctional facilities and almost all of our money in corrections is being spent on those who are involved with drugs. “Mass incarceration of convicted drug offenders is a substantial contributor to America’s prison and jail overcrowding.
Drug Trafficking in the United States Shiann Allshouse ENG122: English Composition II Marsha Beckwith-Howard November 4, 2012 Drug Trafficking in the United States Drug law enforcement agencies face daily challenges in protecting the country's borders from drug traffickers trying to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States. This has been an ongoing problem for many years. Despite the efforts of the law enforcement, the amount of illegal drugs coming into the United States continues to grow. The two most common illegal drugs that drug traffickers try to get pass the border are methamphetamine and crack cocaine. The various ways of transporting the illegal drugs into the United States include concealing
The distribution and use of drugs has led to an increase in arrest and conviction of individuals under economic strain. For instance, individuals that live in deteriorated communities that can not excess adequate education and health care are at higher risk of substance abuse than any other community and will be the majority of the prison system. It is suggested that there is four models that help explain the path way to criminality of a person and they focus on the ending result after the use of illegal substances. The four models are called intoxication, addiction, systemic, and legal (WSSAC, 2009). The intoxication model suggests that individuals will not use rational thought while intoxicated which leads to the addiction model which states that crimes are committed so the addict can support the habit (WSSAC,2009) The systemic model states that crime occurs when the participant of the drug trade sales the drug.
Young people started to get involved in street gangs by working as street soldiers in drug distribution networks, arming themselves, and began to kill each other at a high rate. Fortunately, this event began to slow down in the mid-1990s. Violent crimes have been implicated with alcohol abuse in a substantial proportion of violent crimes. Although not given the concentrated public attention that abuse of illegal drugs has received, it continues to threaten public
Final Draft Jennifer Anderson ENG122: English Composition II 22 August 2012 Final Draft Drugs. There are many different types of drugs that are used and abused daily by millions of individuals. They can vary from marijuana, methamphetamines, to ecstasy or cocaine. With these different types of drugs being available they need to have a way to get to the user. The path from drug maker to drug user is called drug trafficking.
Hannah McLeod Mr. Ziehm American Literature 5 February 2012 Not For Sale The United States serves as a passage way and harbor of many human traffickers throughout the nation, “each year about 17,500 individuals are brought into the United States and held against their will as victims of human trafficking” (Talati 1). Human trafficking may be defined as the acquiring of humans as unwilling subjects for the purpose of making a profit. Next to the drug industry, human trafficking is now the most profitable and fastest growing criminal industry in the world (Anderson 8). This industry is today’s modern time slavery. Although the severity of this situation is not fully known because of its secrecy, organizations are working towards this goal
Everyone in society plays a particular role. Social justice advocates might be concerned about incarceration rates that show racial disproportions and a fiscally conservative taxpayer would also be worried about the cost of said “war on drugs.” State legislatures need new ideas and solutions to come out of the war on drugs, considering policy change is in their hands. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. The inmate population grew considerably by 1,849 prisoners a week in 1996; that is 264 people a day. One out of every 155 U.S. residents has been behind bars, putting the United States only second to Russia and it’s per person rate of incarceration.
These new gang chapters sometimes become rivals to the original gang (Major Prison Gangs). Prison gangs are responsible for a wide varity of illegal activities. Along with offering protection to its gang members, prison gangs handle the drug, tobacco, and alcohol trafficking inside the prison. They are able and often bribe or scare other inmates and staff to “look the other way” as they commit their crimes. Larger prison gangs can even influence organized crime outside of prison.
Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing sector of illegal drug use in the United States. Over the course of a few years, the National Institutes of Health estimated that over twenty percent of people have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. Among these people, teenagers from ages 12 to 17 are the most frequent abusers. Today the number of teenagers who abuse prescription drugs is alarmingly high. “On average, 6,027 teens use prescription drugs every day to get high for the first time” (DEA).