Originally Posted by
spunkloaf
As somebody who has seen the inside of the system, I can tell you exactly what needs to change in the war on drugs.
Right now we are sending anybody to jail who gets caught with drugs. I mean, real hard drugs--Marijuana is becoming more and more decriminalized every year, thank God.
So what happens then? Problem solved, right?
Wrong. Since the "criminal" has not been treated for any drug problem, they are still addicted and will continue to participate in addict-like behaviors, even while in jail or prison. In prison, it's common knowledge that inmates continue to use drugs. Not only that, but they become accustomed to a type of prison culture which they will take with them out into the real world when they are released.
Prison makes people hard-headed, paranoid, "street-smart," sexist, racist and dumb. No wonder republicans just want to throw you in prison for dumb things like using drugs.
They think they are punishing people when they do this. "We'll show them dirty criminals." You spend your tax money on private prisons, which take your money for profit and use only a small portion of it for the minimalistic feeding and sheltering of criminals.
And what do these criminals do while stuck in their walls with each other for months and years at a time? They create a counter-culture of criminals which stays with them when they are released into the outer world.
You've seen it yourself, I'm sure. Prison life is glorified in the outside world. Country stars cashed in on the prison life with their songs, and now the younger generation has done it with their hippity hop.
I have never been to prison, thankfully. I should have. But, I did hang around with a bunch of dudes (white guys) who had been to prison, and they could tell that I was green--and they took advantage of it. Somebody robbed me blind and took my smartphone, and when I confronted them about it, they protected each other. (In prison, "snitches get stitches.")
You see, the prison culture is much more fortified than the American culture. It is a hard and close knit community.
Spend your tax dollars better. Treatment is a much more effective and less damaging option. When an addict comes out of treatment, they will not have learned criminal techniques like how to steal your car. They will not learned how to case your house and disable your security during the day so they can come back and rob you at night. These kinds of things are learned in prison. But if you treat the person instead of criminalize them, they are a lot less likely to be repeat offenders, and they will learn something about themselves.