Drug Courts:

Paper Summary:

This paper explains the weaknesses of the American judicial system where drug addicts and dealers are trialed and punished but within a matter of weeks are out on the street again, often being rearrested before their parole is up. The writer looks at the new system which has been instituted in order to avoid this occurrence - namely "drug courts". It explains what this system is - a unique court system for drug related crimes - and how, through this system, the courts hope to put an end to the vicious cycle of arrests and convictions, with no purpose.

From the Paper:

"For the past several decades, drug use has had an overwhelming effect upon the American justice system, with drug and drug-related crime being the most common offense in almost every community (Drug Strategies, 1996). Beyond the troubling ability of these problems to fill prisons to capacity, the traditional judicial system seemed to have no deterrent effect on these crimes (Drug and Crime Facts, 1994). A disturbing "revolving door" pattern had emerged, with drug offenders moving through the system in a predictable pattern of arrest, prosecution, conviction, incarceration, and release. In a few weeks, sometimes only a few days, the same person was back in the system again, arrested for drug possession or a drug-related crime (National Association of Drug Court Professionals [NADCP], 1997). A particularly difficult problem faced by the system was the growing use of crack cocaine in the 1980s (Miller & Gold, 1994). The legislature passed tougher laws imposing longer sentences, such as the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988, and the nation struggled to find a solution for its drug and crime problem ("The Effective National Drug Control Strategy," 1999)."

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