Juveniles And Social Justice Research Paper

Juveniles and Social Justice
Linda Buch
Ashford University
CRJ 422
Instructor J. Kerr
March 3, 2014

Juveniles and Social Justice

Drug use has been a major concern in American society for as long as our country has existed and is thought to be what has led to the many unfolding issues of the now overcrowded prison population in America. In 1980, there were “41,000 people in jails and prisons for drug offences, but by 2012 the number had risen to 507,000” (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2013). Why the rise in prison population? President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs", a war that thus far has cost roughly a trillion dollars and has engendered little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the Cumulated…show more content…
While more and more young men and women are being ushered into the criminal justice system under the guise of fighting drugs, the prison population continues to rise. At the heart of the rise in prison population is drugs. Those who were arrested under the strict laws of the 1980s-1990s still remain in prisons across the country. They are now adults who have become institutionalized and will never again be a part of society. Tax payers pay to house these inmates and pay for their medical expenses as they spend the rest of their lives in a prison cell with no hope for the future.
In order to understand the circumstances and issues that led to the tens of thousands who have been imprisoned on drug charges we must first understand addiction and the role that drugs play in the American society. This paper is going to discuss the importance of the criminal justice system, how it operates, and the constitution based upon this topic, social equality and fairness and how the criminal justice system helps and fails to restore social…show more content…
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