War on Drugs

The United States has been challenged with the war on drugs for decades. When we observe our country through a law enforcement aspect we can find that most crime occurs due to economical obstacles, minority discrimination, and more importantly the break out of various illegal/legal drugs. The increase of drug use, drug traffic and harsher laws against drug crimes the increase in our prison populations has increased. The cost that goes into the war on drugs is nearly 50 billion dollars per year. (2004) Our prison population is close to 2 million individuals.( 2004) We spend close to 20 billion dollars just to keep drug users and sellers in our prison systems. These figures contribute and affect the overcrowding in our prison systems.

Texas recently became the nation's incarceration leader and 21% of the Texas prison inmates are nonviolent drug offenders. (Callahan, 2000) Although Texas is harsh with their drug sentencing, the tough laws have not seemed to cut down on the war on drugs. Although there are tough drug laws in the State of Texas, the decrease of drug related crimes has not seemed to decrease. The laws do not deter drug dealers; the laws simply move the dealers from state to state. "The war on drugs and accompanying mandatory minimum-sentencing laws, fueled by media and political "lock 'em up and throw away the key" campaigns of the past 25 years have filled our county jails and state prison systems with substance abusers and parole violators and more women than ever in the history of our country."(Gido, 2006)

"As 2006 begins, prisons large and small, rural and urban, struggle to house and separate, feed and clothe, program and habilitate pretrial and sentenced, local, state and federal detainees and inmates, while balancing public safety and inmate and staff security and safety, using a model that has largely never worked." (Gido, 2006) Different solutions need to be researched in order to control the overcrowded prisons due to drug offense crimes.

The first solution that can be worked on is educating youth at an earlier age as to the affects of drugs. Although there are programs that are in place in our school systems to educate students about drugs and the ill effect they have on our society, it has been seen that over the years our prison system has not had a decrease in drug related arrests. If we can return to the ground level and focus on youth; hopefully by the time they reach the age at which they are faced with drugs they can make more educated decisions. If we can implement harsh drug programs in the school systems this could help decrease the drug offense inmate population.

A second solution could be to spend more money on drug programs for adults rather than just placing them in jails and prison for minor drug related offenses. As with any crime, if an individual is not given the chance to rehabilitate themselves recidivism will continue to occur. The amount of money we spend on the War on Drugs is astonishing. If we could take even half that amount and create more drug programs this could help in the reduction of drug related crimes in our prison systems. We could implement a system similar to probation that would require individuals who committed drug related crimes to be placed in drug rehabilitation centers instead of jails and prisons. Although some may say that drug programs do not work and if an individual does not want to participate in the program it will not succeed, if we continue to send these individuals through drug programs instead of back through the jail system eventually these individuals will become rehabilitated. If in some cases individuals just continue to disobey the law and commit drug related offenses, our jail system could still decrease by continuing to send these individuals through drug rehabilitation programs instead of the jails.

The third and final solution to the war on drugs and our prison system is to focus more money and resources to border control and the drugs that continue to come past our borders. It is estimated that only 10-25% of illegal drugs are stopped at our borders. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006) Our government continues to spend money on stopping illegal immigrants from crossing our borders yet it is not just illegal immigrants who are bringing drugs into our country. If we take some of the money we spend on the war on drugs and put it towards increased border patrol we could eliminate much more than the 25% of drug trafficking that occurs.

The United States will continue to battle the War on Drugs. Our government needs to become more open- minded and research different ways in which we can help reduce the drug issues that clog our prison systems. The amount of financial resources that we spend on keeping drug related crimes in our prison system could be put to better use with more education for our youth, harsh drug rehabilitation programs that would continue instead of just putting an individual through the program one or two times and an increase on border control. If we can focus on these three solutions, over the next few decades we could begin to see a decrease not only in our prison systems, but also in the amount of drug use that occurs within our states.

References

(2004, October 9). Drug War Facts. Retrieved August 3, 2006, from Drug Offenders In The Corrections System - Prisons, Jails and Probation Web site: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm

(2006). U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved August 5, 2006, from Drug Use, Testing, and Treatment in Jails Web site: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/duttj.htm

(2006). Journey for Justice in Texas. Retrieved August 5, 2006, from The November Coalition Web site: http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/20/20011.html

Gido, Rosemary (2006, January 4). The November Coalition. Retrieved August 6, 2006, from More Attention Should be Paid to County Prisons Web site: http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking06/PACounties.html