Drug Offenders Made Harden Criminals Essay, Research Paper

For John Russell it was just another ordinary night. At 2:00 A.M. he was calmly sleeping. He arose to a cracking noise outside; just then the police came crashing into the house. They ransack his house and found a 3-ounce bag of marijuana. In his underwear only, he is cuffed and taken to jail. In the meantime his wife and two kids huddle in the bedroom scarred to death.

Was it all necessary? Is the pursuit of marijuana really so important that a family has to be terrorized and broken apart. Mr. Russell is now serving a five sentence in prison. In an effort to make a few extra dollars for his family, he has now missed out on many things. He had to miss his oldest child graduate from high school. His marriage has stressed to its greatest extreme. And to society he is considered a ?criminal.? Was sending this person to prison the best thing to do? It just does not seem worth it

For years and years we having been locking up drug offenders. People with no violent history at all have to share jail cells with murderers and rapists. And what happens to these non-violent people after assimilating to the prison population? The idea is to lock them up, not rehabilitate!

Prison life can have many effects on a person. Once in prison, one must submit himself to eating, sleeping, and living with harden criminals. And for the most part the drug are still readily available. In prison, the more illicit drugs are readily available.

A once marihuana smoker could very easily become a much harder drug user. And it does happen! One must live in fear and always watch their back. Homosexuality is very predominant in the prison population. The prisoner is faced with this every day. While incarcerated your life is put on a temporary hold, while the rest of the society sources ahead.

Along with prison life comes family turmoil. Many families have fallen apart because of drug convictions. Over half of incarcerated drug offenders eventually get divorced. Many times the kids are taken to foster homes to raised. Mothers and fathers are left to raise a family on their own while the other rots away in prison.

During his first wife?s first six months of pregnancy, John M. was imprisoned for drug charges. John never had the opportunity to see his daughter born. He also had a very steady career and family. He is now divorced and rarely sees his kid. Thus forcing the mother and daughter to welfare. Did this solve John?s drug problems? No, he now has no family, lives in daily fear, and has acquired a more severe drug problem while in prison. How can one rehabilitate when he has nothing to return to in society?

For a former prisoner, assimilation into society can be a hard thing. Where do you go? What do you do? For an ex-convict, the ability to get a job is harder than that of an average person. When the interviewer sees ?Felony or Drug Conviction? on your application, from that moment on, you are instantly prejudiced. Even the manager at McDonalds might not want to hire you. This person has to start over from the beginning, just as if he had just got out of high school.

The way we go about treating drug offenders in America is dysfunctional. If rehabilitation is the purpose, then we have failed. Why not put these people in drug rehabilitation centers. And at the same time keep in touch with society. We need to help these people recover from their addictions, while allowing them a functional life in society.

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