Overpopulated Prisons

Words: 1185
Pages: 5
Open Document
Overpopulation of prisons is a huge issue that this country is having. The cause of this overpopulation is due to the fact that addicts are being sent to prison and not getting the help that they need. Drug addicts are being treated as serious criminals when they should be treated like patients with a sickness because they are ill. Because drug addicts are being wrongfully committed, the prisons are being overpopulated by people who should not be there. Although drug addicts are committing crimes while on drugs, drug addicts should be sent to rehabilitation programs instead of prison because they can get the treatment that they need, they did not commit a major crime that should involve prison, and if drug addicts are sent to prison instead …show more content…
As Paul Gaita states in the article, “Justice Department to Reduce Federal Drug Sentences,” sending drug addicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison will lessen the number of overpopulated prisons. In the article, “We Should Be Sending Drug Addicts to the Hospital, Not Putting Them in Prison,” Matthew Rozsa tells about a police department that is changing their rules. If a drug addicts comes to their department with drug paraphernalia in hand and asks for help, they will not be charged with any crime. According to Mike Ward, author of “Texas Prison Population Shrinks as Rehabilitation Programs Take Root,” Texas prisons and other states are starting to send addicts to treatment programs instead of prisons. The programs are less expensive than prison, and it is helping with the overpopulation of the prison system. If more states start to send drug addicts, who have not committed any other crime, to rehabilitation programs, then the prison system would work much more …show more content…
In the article, “Texas Prison Population Shrinks as Rehabilitation Programs Take Root,” Mike Ward states that rehabilitation programs do not work for everybody. To elaborate, there is a woman, Sharon Padilla, who was sentenced three years in prison for the possession of cocaine. She went through several programs, but none of them, except prison, worked. In the article, “To Treat Drug Addiction, We’ll Still Need Jail Time,” Ed Gogek states that most addicts who actually want treatment have other issues that make it hard for them to get in or stay in treatment programs. In “The Long, Slow Push to Prison Sentencing Reform,” Aliyah Frumin argues that the prison system is good enough and does not need to be fixed or changed. As a result, drug addicts are still being sent to prison. It is understandable why the opposition believes that rehabilitation programs do not work. Many people go for months at a time and are then put back on the streets to do it all over again. Though it is a valid argument that rehabilitation programs do not work, prisons are being overpopulated; and sending drug addicts to rehabilitation programs can help to solve that
Show More

Related Documents: Overpopulated Prisons

WEEK 3 TEAM PORTION Essay

affects a prison as a whole. Economy affects everything and everyone, and prisons are greatly affected when the economy is poor. Prison budgets can get decreased meaning many possible conflicts. Decreasing budgets in prisons may lead to staff reduction and that affects both the inmates and the staff. An overpopulated prison with not enough officers may lead to fights between inmates, injured staff and inmates, even deaths. Rehabilitation programs depend on money from budgets. If a prison does not…

Words 299 - Pages 2

Mandatory Minimum Sentences Vs Three Strikes

laws avert crime, but this statement is still up in the air. Firstly, mandatory minimum sentences are a main contributor to our high incarceration rate. These harsh sentences unequally affect non-violent offenders, which leads to overpopulated prisons. Additionally, prisons tend to overlook the rehabilitation that is needed for prisoners to fix their behavior…

Words 333 - Pages 2

Private Prison Research Paper

is immoral” (Burgon). The main goal of privatized prisons is to make a business out of the prison industry and out of inmates by cutting the costs of their basic needs. Private prisons will induce hazardous conditions so that they make a profit out of the prison industry. Even though prisons are not made for profit, they are made for public safety and no one should cut down on the price of safety. In any case, the main problems that private prisons face are inadequate staffing, health concerns, and…

Words 1413 - Pages 6

Habitual Offenders Essay

Justice Department released a report on mandatory minimum sentences. 21.2% of the federal prison population is small time drug offenders. These drug offenders are serving longer prison time than robbers and rapists. We, the tax payers, are paying the price to keep these non-violent low level drug offenders in prison for 5 to 10 years. The Justice Department say that keeping a low level drug offender in prison for years does not prevent crime any better than shorter sentences. It costs us $25,000…

Words 495 - Pages 2

Us Population In Prison

“US Prisons” Did you know that the US has 25% of the world population of inmates in prison? Prison can’t and won’t change the inmate's view of life, although we have a need for incarceration, the prisons are overpopulated. Prison does not reform people because the population of inmates has increased, prisoners still end up in jail after their release, and they are still addicted to what they were before prison. We need change in our country, or we will need to spend and use our money to improve…

Words 642 - Pages 3

Death Penalty Research Paper

For example, money spent for holding criminals in prison could be saved, prisons wouldn’t be overpopulated, and criminals wouldn’t be released from jail and continue their saga of crime. One of the main reasons the death penalty should be continued is because countless dollars are invested in criminals in jails, and those dollars could be saved. For example, “State prison systems spend more than $30 billion annually, and the bureau of prisons budgeted $5 billion for just 182,000 federal inmates…

Words 638 - Pages 3

2br02b Kurt Vonnegut Analysis

birth and in their society for every baby born 1 person had to be sacraficed. This has to happen because the U.S. was becoming overpopulated and there wasn’t enough food and water for everyone living so to fix that problem they sacraficed one person for each baby born and if there was no sacrafice the baby born would not be expected to live. In this society, “there were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, and no wars. All diseases were conquered So was old age.” There were…

Words 333 - Pages 2

Australia's Drug Courts Literature Review

program. Having family and community support also affects how the treatment can work for the offender. The author goes on to say even though the studies show a small improvement, comparing the offenders on the treatment program to the offenders going to prison, there is a lack of controlled evidence to support this. He states the examining periods were not tested for long enough periods of time and not enough random comparison. With each state having its own model within the drug court of how they treat…

Words 667 - Pages 3

Decriminalization of Drugs Essay

murders). In addition, the prison space used to house drug dealers and users puts a limitation on the space we are able to use for more serious offenders. Over 50 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons are being charged with drug-related crimes. Not only is this method not working, but also costing thousands of tax payers’ dollars. Just in the state of California it costs about 50 thousand dollars a year to house one inmate. More funding is going into jails and prisons than it is to education…

Words 723 - Pages 3

Death Penalty or Life in Prison Essay

Death Penalty or Life in Prison Sierra Brattain Southwestern Michigan College Death Penalty or Life in Prison Death Penalty I began my research by looking into the death penalty or also known as capital punishment. The death penalty is the action of executing a person who has committed an illegal act equivalent to death. Crimes punishable by death vary depending on the state; some include murder, sexual assault, treason, and other serious capital crimes (“Crimes Punishable”, 2011). There…

Words 1190 - Pages 5