BF2S Forums DAST Chat

Dilbert_X wrote:

I imagine it varies state by state and university by university, but if they had the right why didn't they just say so at the start?
No need to threaten him with being thrown out of college or push him around.

President Barack Obama says he wants to treat the nation's drug problem as a public health issue as well as a law enforcement one. So he has said nonviolent drug offenders should be given a chance at rehabilitation over jail.

Along those lines, the administration has supported drug courts, which allow low-level drug offenders to have their charges dropped if they successfully complete a court-monitored treatment program. We rated Obama's promise to enhance drug courts as a Compromise, because while federal funding has increased and the number of drug courts has grown by about 400 during his term to more than 2,700, the system has not expanded into the federal courts system as Obama pledged.

"These courts are a perfect example of how we're working to shift our emphasis to treat the nation's drug problem as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue,” Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an email.  "(The National Association of Drug Court Professionals) estimates that we send roughly 120,000 people into treatment instead of prison each year – and that number will continue to rise as more courts open.”

Lemaitre also pointed to other progress on emphasizing rehabilitation for drug offenders:

• Last fiscal year, the Obama administration spent $10.4 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs compared with $9.2 billion on domestic drug enforcement.

• Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 into law that dramatically reduced a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine, which disproportionately affected minorities. His administration also advocated for, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission approved, the retroactive application of these sentencing guidelines which became effective last year.

• The administration has worked to clarify rules regarding the eligibility of housing authorities to allow ex-offenders access to public housing, excluding individuals convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine in public housing and registered sex offenders.

• Attorney General Eric Holder has urged state officials to review the legal collateral consequences of state laws that hinder ex-offenders' successful reentry into society.

• The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in November that for the third straight year the nation's prison and jail population decreased.

Using retrospective data, researchers in several studies found that drug courts reduced recidivism among program participants in contrast to comparable probationers. For example, one study found that within a two-year follow-up period, the felony re-arrest rate decreased from 40 percent before the drug court to 12 percent after the drug court started in one county, and the felony re-arrest rate decreased from 50 percent to 35 percent in another county. [1]

In an unprecedented longitudinal study that accumulated recidivism and cost analyses of drug court cohorts over 10 years, NIJ researchers found that drug courts may lower recidivism rates (re-arrests) and significantly lower costs. They used data from a primarily pre-plea adult drug court in Portland, Oregon, to track 6,500 offenders who participated in the Multnomah County Drug Court between 1991 and 2001. Re-arrests were lower five years or more later compared to re-arrests for similar drug offenders within the same county.

The researchers also found, however, that the drug courts' impact on recidivism varied by year as a result of changes in programming and judge assignments over time. Reductions in recidivism ranged from 17 to 26 percent.

Lower costs. Compared to traditional criminal justice system processing, treatment and other investment costs averaged $1,392 lower per drug court participant. Reduced recidivism and other long-term program outcomes resulted in public savings of $6,744 on average per participant (or $12,218 if victimization costs are included).[2]

Last edited by Macbeth (2012-12-13 12:15:58)

The real problem with drug courts, however, is that they attempt to address drug use within a drug war framework. That is, drug courts attempt to treat drug use as a health issue, but they cannot because they are required to enforce laws criminalizing drug use -- and therefore punishment trumps treatment every time. As a result, drug courts have actually made the criminal justice system more punitive toward addiction -- not less.

For example, people who struggle the most with a drug problem are more likely than those without a drug problem to be kicked out of a drug court and incarcerated. (And, yes, plenty of people who don't have a drug problem do end up in a drug court - many of them for a marijuana possession offense.) Although relapse is a common and predictable occurrence during treatment, drug courts often punish people who suffer a relapse by pulling them out of treatment and putting them in jail for several days or weeks. By contrast, in a medical setting, relapse calls for intensified treatment.

Anyone who has struggled, or seen a loved one struggle, with alcohol addiction knows that drug abuse is a difficult, personal, and complicated issue, not one that's going to be solved with a bumper sticker or simplistic solutions -- or with jail.

Millions of Americans are addicted to prescription drugs like pain killers, but no one thinks the solution is to lock them up. The solution should be the same for people addicted to similar drugs that just aren't made by a pharmaceutical company: treat the addiction.

To do this, drug policies need to be better aligned with evidence and with public health principles. We should reserve drug courts for cases involving offenses against person or property that are linked to a drug use disorder, while improving drug court practices and providing other options for people convicted of drug law violations. We should work toward removing criminal penalties for drug use to address the problem of mass drug arrests and incarceration. And we should bolster public health systems, including harm reduction and treatment programs, to more effectively and cost-effectively address problematic drug use.

Macbeth wrote:

Not responding you you Hurri. Was going to post this anyway

President Barack Obama says he wants to treat the nation's drug problem as a public health issue as well as a law enforcement one. So he has said nonviolent drug offenders should be given a chance at rehabilitation over jail.

Along those lines, the administration has supported drug courts, which allow low-level drug offenders to have their charges dropped if they successfully complete a court-monitored treatment program. We rated Obama's promise to enhance drug courts as a Compromise, because while federal funding has increased and the number of drug courts has grown by about 400 during his term to more than 2,700, the system has not expanded into the federal courts system as Obama pledged.

"These courts are a perfect example of how we're working to shift our emphasis to treat the nation's drug problem as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue,” Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an email.  "(The National Association of Drug Court Professionals) estimates that we send roughly 120,000 people into treatment instead of prison each year – and that number will continue to rise as more courts open.”

Lemaitre also pointed to other progress on emphasizing rehabilitation for drug offenders:

• Last fiscal year, the Obama administration spent $10.4 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs compared with $9.2 billion on domestic drug enforcement.

• Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 into law that dramatically reduced a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine, which disproportionately affected minorities. His administration also advocated for, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission approved, the retroactive application of these sentencing guidelines which became effective last year.

• The administration has worked to clarify rules regarding the eligibility of housing authorities to allow ex-offenders access to public housing, excluding individuals convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine in public housing and registered sex offenders.

• Attorney General Eric Holder has urged state officials to review the legal collateral consequences of state laws that hinder ex-offenders' successful reentry into society.

• The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in November that for the third straight year the nation's prison and jail population decreased.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter … -to-rehab/

WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.

Jay wrote:

Never understood why the US Census tracks race to begin with. Pointless.