Chad Park

Math 1030
Final

Drug Treatment vs. Prison

Is Prison working?

The first drug law passed on a national level in the United States was in 1937 banning the use of
marijuana. What many Americans don't know today is the reasoning behind the passing of this first
drug law. Politicians in 1937 knew of the effects and possible dangers of marijuana but this is not why
they illegalized the drug. The biggest population of people who used marijuana in 1937 was African
American blues players and as this style of music became popular it became ever more apart of this
population. The constitution of the states slavery is abolished except as a form of punishment. Racist
southern politicians new this and used this law to imprison African Americans in large part to enslave
them in southern chain gangs. This is why many call the chain gang years of the south Americas
second era of slavery.
In 1971 President Richard M. Nixon declared War on drugs and 44 years later we are still fight this
war. With 51 billion dollars spent annually and prisons becoming more and more over crowed costing
nearly 20,000 dollars a year to incarcerate just one inmate; not to mention the thousands of lives lost in
this war. Some experts say that the war on drugs not only has become the longest and most expensive
war in American history but one of the most bloodiest as well. Leaving many Americans today asking
are prisons really working to detour drug use.
Graph 1 shows the United States prison population from 1920 to 2008 if we look at the prison
population the year marijuana was illegalized prison rates did increase to just above 0.2%. Then it
declines threw the 1940s this could be in large part to the end of the great depression and the starting of
WW2. Then rising again in 1960 back to 0.2% then declining as the Vietnam war starts which could
prove a correlation between prison rates declining because of war. Then rising in 1971 when Nixon
declares war on drugs. The graph shows a steady incline in prison population clear into the 1980's till
1984 when the sentencing reform act (SRA) is passed. Then prison rates sky rocket steadily to 0.8% in
2008. One of the main reasons for this is because under SRA there are now mandatory sentences
handed out for drug offenders. This was done on a three tier basses minimum, medium and maximum

sentencing. So for example a minimum sentence would be five years in prison, a medium sentence is
ten years and, a maximum sentence is 25 years in prison. So one of the main factors to prison
population sky rocketing in the 80's is not just because of all the new drug offenders being charged
under these laws but, now they are staying longer in other words no one is getting out. This graph is
bias it only shows the total prison population and not a sample of drug offenders that are incarcerated.
But the graph is still useful because its does show how prison populations have drastically increased
under the war on drugs and its sentencing laws.
Graph 2 show the recidivism rate of prisoners released from 30 different states and tracks them for
five years. Line a shows the percent of inmates from release to their first arrest in a five year period.
Line b shows the percent of inmates from release to first arrest that led them back to prison and, line c
shows the percent of inmates from release that led to a new conviction over five years. If we look at
this graph it shows that nearly 59% of inmates have either returned back to prison or have returned
back to prison with new charges in a five year period. As well as almost 80% of inmates released have
had a new arrest that did not lead to prison but jail time with in five years of release. This graph is bias
as well it only shows the total prison population not just drug offenders. But can be a reliable source
when using graph one because, graph one shows how drug offenses have drastically increased the
national prison population. Then it is logical to say drug offenses drastically increase recidivism rates.
Graphs three and four shows the recidivism rates of individuals that have successfully graduated
drug courts over a one year period (graph 3) and a two year period( graph 4). If we look at graph one
first and use the largest drug court sample which is 832 graduates. Then compare it to graph two line b
of the national recidivism rates for prison we can see about a ten percent decline in recidivism for drug
court graduates. If we do the same thing using graph 4 and again comparing the largest sample of drug
court graduates 832 and then compare that to line b on graph two at the second year of release. The
recidivism of drug court graduates is still ten percent below the nation recidivism rates of prison.
These two graphs have biases both only used samples from the drug court system which does not fully

represent drug treatment as a whole or, the total population of drug offender being released from prison.
Violent drug offenders can not take part in the drug court programs as well as the population of
offenders that do not want to take part in the program and seek treatment else where. In order to be
more accurate there needs to be more research done with a larger sample of the population. For
example the recidivism of all major treatment centers nation wide along with to total amount of drug
offenders in prison. But the information gathered is large enough to compare and show a correlation
with each other. There for according to the information given it does show and answers the question
that prison does not work in detouring drug use.
Drug use is a psychological and sociological problem something prison wan never meant to treat.
Prisons were only meant to punish they take individuals out of society and often times psychologically
break them down. Treatment on the other hand threw proper assessment and quality treatment can help
solve this problem. A large quantity of drug use is the direct result of mental illness or depression
something drug treatment can screen for and treat, but there are limitations to treatment as well. People
lie in assessments some people do not want treatment and some programs are only in it for the money
and do not care for their clients. This is why such programs as drug courts have been so successful
they have state held standards for treatment. For example programs have to be a certain length need to
have proper assessments to check for mental illness or personality disorders and; these programs will
no not receive state funding if positive results are not found. Because of these standards the results
have been positive enough that many states like for example Utah are now changing their drug laws
and, are no long placing non-violent drug offenders in prison but rehabs first.

Work Cite Page

http://www.businessinsider.com/department-of-justice-report-shows-high-recidivism-rate-2014-4
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/201229.pdf