Punishment Vs Treatment Essay
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The punishment or treatment of addictive pregnant women and the risk of mental illness on their unborn child are very controversial issues in social work today(Young, 1996, 33). Should child-removal or time in a correctional facility punish substance abusing pregnant women, or should they be sentenced to a type of addiction treatment program? Does maternal substance abuse fall under the categories of child abuse and neglect? These questions, along with other ambiguous problems will be discussed in great detail throughout this report, such as how a social worker deals with these cases.
Being in a social work field, one will realize that not everything is a cut and paste from the handbook. There are situations, more than often, where educated choices gained from training are needed to be applied. That is a good explanation on why punishment vs. treatment of addictive pregnant women is so controversial.
Punishment could possibly have sexist or racist motives and then ultimately work more to show inequalities between the classes, rather than protect the children (Young, 1996, 33). Policymakers, law enforcement officials, and the general public all have punitive responses to the issues surrounding drug-exposed infants.
It is even shown through observation that a number of judges have given heavier sentences to pregnant addicts vs. non-pregnant addicts for the same crime (Young, 1996, 34). Also, court-ordered removal of a baby at birth, without trial or hearing, is very common now. This removal is based on the ground that the mother or infant has a positive drug test at the time of birth. This procedure has increased dramatically in the past 10 years despite the severe shortage of foster homes in the United States (Skoe, 1996, 274). There are also a number of states that require social workers and other healthcare professionals to report substance-abusing pregnant women to state authorities, rather than seeking a treatment for them. As a result of this pregnant women sometimes avoid contact with social workers(Young, 1996, 35).
These examples of how punishment is granted are ridiculous. Healthcare and social service agencies should be the ones making the decisions on such cases, not the courts (Altman, 1998, 853). It is true that anyone who uses drugs are responsible for that use. But once addiction takes over it puts a limitation on responsibility. The dependence becomes involved in the person's way of life until they are not responsible for their continuing use. Experts agree that stopping the
usage of a dependent drug cannot be done by a mere act of will. Addiction changes the will to do a drug into the need to do a drug. It becomes a condition - and criminal law should punish people for acts, not conditions (Young, 1996, 36). By giving punitive reflexes to these women we are saying that they are responsible for their drug use as well as their pregnancies, these are problematic assumptions for social workers to hold (Young, 1996, 37-39).
From punitive policies came controversy on the morality of it. With this, some state and local governments encourage treatment over punishment. For example, California has a law that gives priority to pregnant women in drug treatment programs. Also, New York City has a program that allows drug dependent mothers to take their newborns home, as long as they seek treatment and agree to weekly visits from a social worker (Young, 1996, 35). In the last five years there has been an increase...
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