Drugs And Crime Term paper

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Use federal tax dollars to fund these therapeutic communities in prisons. I feel

that if we teach these prisoners some self-control and alternative lifestyles

that we can keep them from reentering the prisons once they get out. I am also

going to describe some of today’s programs that have proven to be very

effective. Gottfredson and Hirschi developed the general theory of crime. It

According to their theory, the criminal act and the criminal offender are

separate concepts. The criminal act is perceived as opportunity; illegal

activities that people engage in when they perceive them to be advantageous.

Crimes are committed when they promise rewards with minimum threat of pain or

punishment. Crimes that provide easy, short-term gratification are often

committed. The number of offenders may remain the same, while crime rates

fluctuate due to the amount of opportunity (Siegel 1998). Criminal offenders are

people that are predisposed to committing crimes. This does not mean that they

have no choice in the matter, it only means that their self-control level is

lower than average. When a person has limited self-control, they tend to be more

impulsive and shortsighted. This ties back in with crimes that are committed

that provide easy, short-term gratification. These people do not necessarily

have a tendency to commit crimes, they just do not look at long-term

consequences and they tend to be reckless and self-centered (Longshore 1998,

pp.102-113). These people with lower levels of self-control also engage in

non-criminal acts as well. These acts include drinking, gambling, smoking, and

illicit sexual activity (Siegel 1998). Also, drug use is a common act that is

performed by these people. They do not look at the consequences of the drugs,

while they get the short-term gratification. Sometimes this drug abuse becomes

an addiction and then the person will commit other small crimes to get the drugs

or them money to get the drugs. In a mid-western study done by Evans et al.

(1997, pp. 475-504), there was a significant relationship between self-control

and use of illegal drugs. The problem is once these people get into the criminal

justice system, it is hard to get them out. After they do their time and are

released, it is much easier to be sent back to prison. Once they are out, they

revert back to their impulsive selves and continue with the only type of life

they know. They know short-term gratification, the "quick fix” if you

will. Being locked up with thousands of other people in the same situation as

them is not going to change them at all. They break parole and are sent back to

prison. Since the second half of the 1980’s, there has been a large growth in

prison and jail populations, continuing a trend that started in the 1970’s.

The proportion of drug users in the incarcerated population also grew at the

same time. By the end of the 1980’s, about one-third of those sent to state

prisons had been convicted of a drug offense; the highest in the country’s

history (Reuter 1992, pp. 323-395). With the arrival of crack use in the

1980’s, the strong relationship between drugs and crime got stronger. The use

of cocaine and heroin became very prevalent. Violence on the streets that is

caused by drugs got the public’s attention and that put pressure on the police

and courts. Consequently, more arrests were made. While it may seem good at

first that these people are locked up, with a second look, things are not that

good. The cost to John Q. Taxpayer for a prisoner in Ohio for a year is around

$30,000 (Phipps 1998). That gets pretty expensive when you consider that there

are more than 1,100,000 people in United States prisons today (Siegel 1998).

Many prisoners are being held in local jails because of overcrowding. This rise

in population is largely due to the number of inmates serving time for drug

offenses (Siegel 1998). This is where therapeutic communities come into play.

The term “therapeutic community” has been used in many different forms of

treatment, including residential group homes and special schools, and different

conditions, like mental illness, alcoholism, and drug abuse (Lipton 1998,

pp.106-109). In the United States, therapeutic communities are used in the

rehabilitation of drug addicts in and out of prison. These communities involve a

type of group therapy that focuses more on the person a whole and not so much

the offense they committed or their drug abuse. They use a “community of

peers” and role models rather than professional clinicians. They focus on

lifestyle changes and tend to be more holistic (Lipton 1998, pp. 106-109). By

getting inmates to participate in these programs, the prisoners can break their

addiction to drugs. By freeing themselves from this addiction they can change

their lives. These therapeutic communities can teach them some self-control and

ways that they can direct their energies into more productive things, such as

sports, religion, or work. Seven out of every ten men and eight out of every ten

women in the criminal justice system used drugs with some regularity prior to

entering the criminal justice system (Lipton 1998, pp. 106-109). With that many

people in prisons that are using drugs and the connection between drug use and

crime, then if there was any success at all it seems like it would be a step in

the right direction. Many of these offenders will not seek any type of reform

when they are in the community. They feel that they do not have the time to

commit to go through a program of rehabilitation. It makes sense, then, that

they should receive treatment while in prison because one thing they have plenty

of is time. In 1979, around four percent of the prison population, or about

10,000, were receiving treatment through the 160 programs that were available

throughout the country (National Institute on Drug Abuse 1981). Forty-nine of

these programs were based on the therapeutic community model, which served

around 4,200 prisoners. In 1989, the percentage of prisoners that participated

in these programs grew to about eleven percent (Chaiken 1989). Some incomplete

surveys state today that over half the states provide some form of treatment to

their prisoners and about twenty percent of identified drug-using offenders are

using these programs (Frohling 1989). The public started realizing that drug

abuse and crime were on the rise and that something had to be done about it.

This led to more federal money being put into treatment programs in prisons

(Beckett 1994, pp. 425-447). The States were assisted through two Federal

Government initiatives, projects REFORM and RECOVERY. REFORM began in 1987, and

laid the groundwork for the development of effective prison-based treatment for

incarcerated drug abusers. Presentations were made at professional conferences

to national groups and policy makers and to local correctional officials. At

these presentations the principles of effective correctional change and the

efficacy of prison-based treatment were discussed. New models were formed that

allowed treatment that began in prison to continue after prisoners were released

into the community. Many drug abuse treatment system components were established

due to Project REFORM that include: 39 assessment and referral programs

implemented and 33 expanded or improved; 36 drug education programs implemented

and 82 expanded or improved; 44 drug resource centers established and 37

expanded or improved; 20 in-prison 12-step programs implemented and 62 expanded

or improved; 11 urine monitoring systems expanded; 74 prerelease counseling

and/or referral programs...

Ball, J.C., J.W. Shaffer, and D.N. Nurco. 1983. “Day-to-day criminality of
heroin addicts in Baltimore: a study in the continuity of offense rates.” Drug
and Alcohol Dependence. 12: 119-142. Beckett, K. 1994. “Setting the Public
Agenda: “Street Crime” and Drug Use in American Politics.” Social
Problems. 41(3): 425-447. Chaiken, M.R. 1989. “In-Prison Programs for
Drug-Involved Offenders.” Research in Brief. Washington, DC: National
Institute of Justice. Eisenberg, M., and Tony Fabelo. 1996. “Evaluation of the
Texas Correctional Substance Abuse Treatment Initiative: The impact of policy
research.” Crime and Delinquency. 42(2): 296-318. Evans, T.D., F.T. Cullen,
V.S. Burton, R.G. Dunaway, and M.L. Benson. 1997. “The social consequences of
self-control: Testing the general theory of crime.” Criminology. 35: 475-504.
Frohling, R. 1989. “Promising Approaches to Drug Treatment in Correctional
Settings.” Criminal Justice Paper No. 7. National Conference of State
Legislatures, Washington, DC. Inciardi, J.A., S.S. Martin, C.A. Butzin, R.M.
Hooper, and L.D. Harrison. 1997. “An effective model of prison-based treatment
for drug-involved offenders.” Journal of Drug Issues. 27(2): 261-278.
Longshore, D. 1998. “Self-Control and Criminal Opportuinty: A Prospective Test
of the General Theory of Crime.” Social Problems. 45(1): 102-113. Lipton, D.S.
1998. “Therapeutic communities: History, effectiveness, and prospects.”
Corrections Today. 60(6): 106-109. National Institute on Drug Abuse. 1981.
“Drug Abuse Treatment in Prisons.” Treatment Research Report Series.
Washington, DC: U.S. GPO. Phipps, B. 1998. “Criminology class lecture
notes.” Reuter, P. 1992. “Community Crime Prevention: a review and synthesis
of the literature.” Justice Quarterly. 5(3): 323-395. Siegel, L.J. 1998.
Criminology. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co. Toumbourou, J.W., M. Hamilton, B.
Fallon. 1998. “Treatment level progress and time spent in treatment in the
prediction of outcomes following drug-free therapeutic community treatment.”
Addiction. 93(7): 1051-1064. Wexler, H.K., D. Lipton, G.P. Falkin, and A.B.
Rosenbaum. 1992. “Outcome evaluation of a prison therapeutic community for
substance abuse treatment.” In C.G. Leukkfeld and F.M. Tims (eds.), Drug Abuse
Treatment in Prisons and Jails. pp. 156-175. Washington, DC: U.S. GPO. You should cite this paper as follows:

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