Drug and substance abuse is a major cause of imprisonment in the state and federal prisons in the United States. This is due to the fact that most crimes are committed under the influence of drugs. In 2012, the 32% of state prisoners and 26% of federal prisoners admitted that they had committed their present crimes under the influence of drugs. The findings from the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2012 shows that there were 6,937,600 people who were in correctional facilities due to abuse of drugs while another 4,794,000 were under probation for use of prohibited drugs ( Clear & Frost, 2015) . Among those that were imprisoned in state prisons, drug offenders were 44% and 32% in federal prisons. In terms of offences based on races, 11% were African Americans, 9% were Whites, 9% were American Indians, and 8% were Asians. It was also found that a third of parents who were imprisoned in state prisons had committed their crimes under the influence if drugs. The most commonly abused drug was marijuana and hashish with 10% users, followed by cocaine with 4% users.
Increased abuse of drugs has resulted into pressure on state and prison officers to conduct monitoring of offenders to prevent their likelihood of using drugs ( Cole, Smith & DeJong, 2015) . The prison Departments have been forced to make changes to the setup of the justice system in order to accommodate a high number of people who are arrested for possession of drugs.
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Drug abuse policy programs of the United States recommend that a person who has been involved in abuse of drugs that are prohibited should be arrested and prosecuted. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, there is a reduction in drug use in the United States due to the involvement of anti-drug law enforcement agencies in arresting the distributors and users of drugs in the United States.
References
Clear, T. R., & Frost, N. A. (2015). The punishment imperative: The rise and failure of mass incarceration in America . NYU Press.
Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2015). Criminal justice in America . Cengage Learning.
