Inmates Born In Jail Essays - Penology, Substance Abuse, Criminology

Inmates Born In Jail Substance abuse and addiction have changed the nature of America's prison population. Alcohol, drug abusers, addicts, and those who sell illegal drugs dominate state, federal prisons and local jails. Crime and alcohol and drug abuse go hand in hand. Much of the growth in America's inmate population is due to incarceration of drug law violators. With appropriate treatment for substance abuse and addiction, rehabilitation is possible for many of today's prisoners. Once they leave prison they also need continuing aftercare, education and job training. Without treatment and training, most will commit more crimes, get arrested and go back to prison. The choice is ours as well as theirs. Having a group counseling program consisting of 8 to 10 members and one or more trained Chemical Dependency Counselors would be beneficial. The purpose of the group is to provide a safe as well as a challenging place in which to work on personal and interpersonal concerns. Members can discuss their perception of each other and receive feedback on how others perceive them. Establishing trust allows group members to talk openly and honestly. Groups offer opportunity to experiment with different ways of communicating with others and a safe place to try new behaviors. They are able to give support and understanding, offer suggestions, or gently confront the person. Counselor and group members work together to establish trust and commitment to the group. Those who benefit most are usually those who take an active part in the process and who allow themselves to give and receive honest, helpful feedback. The following is information that I obtained from Lt. Kevin Peters at California Institute for Men. In 1980 the State of California had 12 prisons with 32,000 inmates. Today California has 33 prisons with 144,00 inmates. California Institution for Men (CIM) houses 6,500 of these inmates. Over 90% of the inmates at CIM are being incarcerated due to related alcohol and drug crimes. The average sentence is 41.4 months with inmates serving only 21.3 months. One inmate costs taxpayers approximately $232,291.00 for their 21.3 month incarceration, $150,000 for arrest and conviction, another $45,000 for additional bed and $21,470 for housing per year. CIM says 59% to 69% of the inmates are repeat offenders and have served time before. CIM feels it is just a place to house inmates and that there is no structure for rehabilitation. It is not their job to rehabilitate. CIM also states that the inmates have access to programs, such as AA, NA and Control of Substance Abuse for Mental Health. CIM feels that if an inmate wants to attend a program, it is available. It is not mandatory for them to attend and they cannot force an inmate to do so. The desire must be there for the inmate. Most inmates do not attend these programs since they are not mandatory. Most of the inmates dropped out of school due to substance abuse, the major contributing factor regarding their lack of interest in education. Additionally, many inmates come from poverty backgrounds. Why do we continue to release prisoners back to the community still using and still dealing, to commit further crimes and threaten our well-being and that of our children without treating the problem for which they went to prison? I feel that prisons would be a good place to develop the rehabilitation of offenders with substance abuse. The prison system needs to take on a mandatory substance abuse treatment program for all inmates incarcerated due to crimes related to drug use. Continuing to fund and build more prisons for housing offenders of drug abuse are a waste of taxpayers' money. Our prisons are full and the majority of inmates get early releases due to the problem of overcrowding, only to go out and commit more crimes. Drug addiction is a chronic disease. We treat people who have cancer, heart problems or any other disease. Although, the addicts have committed a crime, it doesn't change the fact that they have a disease, we must also treat those who have the disease of addiction. Looking over the different therapeutic community drug abuse treatment in prisons throughout the country, we may ask, why haven't all prisons adopted a program to treat inmates with an addiction on a mandatory basis? We must target these institutions because they house the parents of children and their child's future. If the parents are setting the example that drugs are okay and are doing time and repeated time, then what kind of future is in store for these children? Statistics show and