Race Prison Case Study

Race, Prison, and Drug Laws—Impact of drugs upon the African American Community

Studies show that “there are an estimated 1.5 million Black men in prison and another 3.5 million on probation. Black males make up more than 70 percent of the total prison population, even though they make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population” (Nealy, 2008). This can be due to the lack of education, the livelihood that person lived, drugs, violence, or many other situations, but my focus will be on the drug issue. Law enforcers have a drug control strategy that is they use to gain control of the drug issues, and they are as follows: • Disrupting the market for drugs • Prevention efforts that rely on community activism, public information campaigns to educate the public on the potential dangers of drug use • Law-enforcement efforts against current users, through medical screenings, workplace testing and Drug Courts • Law-enforcement efforts against elements of the supply chain, through surveillance and undercover work • Providing effective and targeted substance abuse treatment to dependent users (Drug Laws)
Explaining Law states that, “In the U.S., the War on Drugs is causing a prison overcrowding problem.
In 1996, 59.6% of prisoners were drug-related criminals. U.S. population grew by about +25% from 1980 to 2000. In that same 20 year time period, U.S. prison population tripled. To make room in prison for incoming drug users and dealers, all inmates, including violent criminals are having their sentences shortened or are being paroled early” (Drug Laws). As one can see the use of drugs among Americans is shortening the sentences of violent criminals to make room for drug users and dealers. This matter will decrease if we begin to intervene in the home, next, the schools, and last but not least the individual
himself. Intervention in the home can help to decrease adolescent substance abuse. From my findings, “Research indicates that parenting has important effects on adolescent substance use. However, the indirect effect of parenting on adolescent substance use via self-control is less understood” (Hope & Whiteford, 2005). In my opinion, the parent is what influences a child to learn and become successful. A parent’s belief is what is instilled in the child and that becomes that child’s belief system. For example, “a good deal of research indicates that parental drug use, along with other psychosocial risk factors, is associated with adverse outcomes for children and adolescents, including adolescent substance use” (Barnard & McKeganey, 2004; Kroll & Taylor, 2003). The relationship between parent and child is important because the parent is not only to teach and nurture the child, but to also be an example. A child that has grown up in a home where the parents were substance abusers is more likely, in my opinion, to become substance abusers also. But on the other hand, if a child is brought up in a home where no drugs was introduced to them, that does not mean that the child will not use drugs. The Social Control Theory will better explain this. The Social Control Theory states: “…youth who are strongly bonded to deviant parents are not at greater risk for deviance themselves; thus there should be no attempt to disrupt the parent-child relationship. In contrast, the social development model would imply that in situations where parents use drugs, efforts should be made to change the parent’s drug-using behavior through treatment and/or strengthen the adolescent’s bonds to non-drug using others” (Drapela, Laurie A. & Mosher, Clayton). The effort that should be made is an attempt to assist the parents in quitting the drug use to decrease the chances of the child becoming a drug abuser. Parental drug use is also a risk factor for incarceration of adolescents. Research shows that “…adult children with incarcerated [parents] who used drugs regularly are at increased risk for incarceration” (Dallaire, 2007). The risk factors are high for children of parents with substance abuse problems. They are “widely considered at high risk for a range of physical and behavioral problems, including substance abuse problems” (NIH). These behavioral problems are what lead to incarceration of adolescents. Children tend to act out to get attention. If a parents is on drugs and cannot care for the child as much as needed the child will find a way to get attention be it negative or positive. In my opinion, I would explain this as, the parent is the record button and the child is the play button. The child will act out what is being recorded, either in a positive or negative way. Likewise, education plays an important part in the number of incarcerated individuals. Studies show that “three-quarters of state prison inmates did not earn a high school diploma. The main reason that jail inmates dropped out of school was behavior or academic problems” (Harlow, 2003).