The war on drugs has cost American taxpayers up to 1 trillion dollars since 1971. Prison charges have increased five times as much. According to statistics, 21 percent of the entire U.S. prisoners got there for a drug crime. To make it worse, more than 50 percent of the whole inmate population got there for drug crime-related cases (PowerPoint, 1). Because of this, a serious war on drugs was declared on October 14 th, 1982, by President Ronald Reagan ( Welch, 2013 ). This was motivated by a belief that treatment is not sufficient and that there was a need to clear all criminals from society and isolate them with extensive use of prison. Between 1980 and 2010, a 400% increase in the number of offenders was recorded in the U.S. Since the 1980s, drug offenses have been the most significant cause of prison growth (PowerPoint, 2). The number of federal prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes increased from 25% to 49% between 1980 and 2016. Similarly, the number of state prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes has risen from 6% to 16% until 2016 ( PowerPoint, 8). It has been proved beyond doubt that the process of interdiction (law enforcement) in the war on drugs is much expensive as compared to treatment and prevention. The U.S government spent $10 Billion on interdiction and $5.5 Billion on treatment (PowerPoint, 15). The cost of imprisoning one nonviolent offender per year is $35,000. On the other hand, the cost of probation and treating one substance-abusing offender ranges from $2,500 and $10,000 (PowerPoint, 17). This proves that treatment is 15 times effective as compared to incarceration in rehabilitating substance-abusing offenders (PowerPoint, 17). According to studies, prison is not the only channel that can be used to fight crime. According to criminologists, Allen Beck, and Alfred Blumstein, imprisonment only helps in reducing 25% of crime ( PowerPoint, 18 ). The biggest percentage (75%) of the decline in crime is due to increased community policing and increased substance abuse treatment intervention, among others (PowerPoint, 18).
References
PowerPoint (nd) CRIM 310. The War on Drugs: What Works? What Doesn’t Week 9
Welch, M. (2013). Corrections: A critical approach . Routledge.
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