189062 †Prisons provide the ideal opportunity Essays

189062 – Prisons provide the ideal opportunity Essays 189062 – Prisons provide the ideal opportunity Essay 189062 – Prisons provide the ideal opportunity Essay 189062 – Prisons provide the ideal chance for handling drug users. Discuss. A comparatively high proportion of offense is committed by wrongdoers who misuse drugs. It is hence recognized that the condemnable justness system can play a cardinal function in undertaking single jobs of drug maltreatment, by supplying intervention to wrongdoers convicted of drug-related offenses. Prison offers a premier chance for promoting drug misusers to prosecute in intervention and support procedures. The Prison Service has in topographic point a model of intervention and support to turn to a broad scope of drug abuse jobs ( Home Office ) . [ 1 ] This essay will analyze the claims that prison provides the ideal chance for handling drug users. The strongest forecaster of offense among male childs and work forces is drug usage ( Home Office, 2000a ) . It has been calculated that wrongdoers feeding their drug wonts commit one in three burglaries and street robberies, together with a high sum of crack-related force and harlotry. The estimated cost of drug-driven offense is ?304 billion a twelvemonth. ( Nacro, 1999a ) . [ 2 ] These figures highlight the relationship between drug-use and offense. Through media coverage of statistics such as these the public identify drug usage as the predominant underlying cause of offense. Although, this perceptual experience is inaccurate, it is important in cut downing society’s fright of offense that the authorities are seen to penalize wrongdoers and tackle drug jobs head-on. Prisons are considered to be establishments for both punishing and rehabilitating wrongdoers. As grounds points to a relationship between drug abuse and offense, cut downing the abuse of drugs, should cut down offense Prisons can play a important function in rehabilitating drug users: †¦for at least the last 11 old ages at that place has been acknowledgment that intervention for drug dependence can take to decreases in offense behavior ( Barton, 2003:142 ) . Bean ( 2002:48-49 ) offers three chief grounds why intervention should be available in prisons: The first is to supply intervention for those who say they want it ; †¦Secondly, intervention programmes cut down the extent of drug usage in prisons by and large. Third, intervention in prison besides provides a agency by which drug users can be after for their release ( Bean, 2002:48-49 ) . The foundations of the prison drug intervention model are the Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare ( CARAT ) services. These run into the non-clinical demands of the great bulk of captives, supplying low threshold, low strength drug services. There are besides Intensive Treatment Programmes to run into the demands of captives with moderate to terrible drug abuse jobs and related piquing behavior. The quality of these intervention programmes is at least equal to anything provided in the community ( Home Office ) . [ 3 ] Much treatment has taken topographic point as to how successful these intervention programmes are. Are they readily available, good delivered, and do they really work? Many observers note that prisons are restricted in the scope of drug intervention programmes they can offer. This is chiefly due to the limited handiness of installations and staff and the length of clip that captives are in detention. For this ground many argue that these programmes are non specific to the jobs of single wrongdoers and are mostly uneffective. John Burrows et Al ( 2000:3 ) reported that the proviso of drug services throughout prison constitutions was uneven and captives reported that the intervention frequently depended on what was available instead than what was appropriate to their demands. [ 4 ] It is argued that handling drug users in prison is mostly unsuccessful as drugs are readily available within the prison walls. Burrows et Al ( 2000:3 ) study that drug pickings among prison populations prior to captivity is high, with usage in the 12 months before come ining prison runing from 40 % to approximately 70 % . Findingss from captive self-report surveies show that many continue to utilize drugs whilst in detention. [ 5 ] Hough produced a study for the Home Office ( 1996 ) analyzing drug abuse and the condemnable justness system. He highlighted the undermentioned issues: Illegal drugs are widely available in prisons, and the defeats of prison life may increase the attraction of drugs to captives. Inmate civilization in some establishments can put a positive value on drug usage, and drugs are of import in the captive economic system. Whatever prisons may accomplish, intervention is provided in an environment which is nil like the one into which inmates are released ( Hough, 1996:40 ) . There is small grounds to propose that handling drug-users in prison has had a important influence on the piquing behavior of those treated. Bean ( 2002: 49 ) argues that it is non yet possible to estimate the impact of the intervention of drug users in prison for a figure of grounds. †¦it is non clear what standards should be used to mensurate the impact of programmes or to find to what extent captivity itself was of greater importance than the intervention. Reconvictions, and possibly go oning drug usage, are the lone steps by and large available but these are non ever valid steps and are seldom dependable. In decision, there is much public and political involvement in the decrease of drug abuse and drug-related offense. Most observers agree that prison provides an ideal chance to undertake single drug jobs: In an ideal universe, prisons would†¦provide a alone chance for handling job drug users. Prisons have control over their inmates ; prisons have clip to consequence alteration ; and the fringy costs of supplying intervention are modest in comparing with the costs of imprisonment ( Hough, 1996:40 ) . However, there are a figure of issues that continue to blockade any important success. As South ( 2002:930 ) concludes: The small research available suggests that imprisonment may hold small consequence on drug or drug related offense behavior. Furthermore, prison is non by and large an effectual environment for cut downing committedness to a drug-using life style. Mentions Barton, A. ( 2003 )Illicit Drugs: Use and Control, London: Routledge. Bean, P. ( 2002 )Drugs and Crime, Cullompton: Willan Publishing. Hough, M. ( 1996 )Drugs Misuse and the Criminal Justice System: A reappraisal of the literature, Home Office. Joyce, P. ( 2001 )Crime and the Criminal Justice System, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. South, N. ( 2002 ) ‘Drugs, Alcohol, and Crime’ , in Maguire, M. Morgan, R. A ; Reiner, R. ( 2002 )The Oxford Handbook of Criminology ( Third Edition) , Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.drugs.gov.uk/drug-interventions-programme/strategy/prison/ Word Count: 1004 1