Drug & Alcohol Abusers and Offenders

A major emphasis in this course has been on an understanding on how America has become the leading country in the world by having 7.5 million people under some form of correctional supervision. The composition of this mostly despised group is in general disproportionally comprised of poor people; males; females; young people ; older adults; high school drop outs ; and non-violent offenders ( Are White-Collar Offenders being incarcerated disproportionally?)!  Your assigned readings of historical and contemporary “Correctional Works” has underscored how your assigned groups have gone through a “criminalization process” and subsequently a “prisonization process”, which in combination, makes it difficult for them to (re)adjust to society!  These processes have all been legally defined or supported by all three branches of government at one time and presumptively contemporarily by the “Public at Large”.

  Drug & Alcohol Abusers and Offenders with a specific focus on users of Alcohol, Marijuana , Methamphetamine, Cocaine Powder and Crack, Prescription Drug Abusers and most recently Opiate users and their respective treatment by the criminal justice system, from arrest, through the courts, to correction . The obvious general questions is: What has been the way we have historically dealt with Drug & Alcohol abusers in the past? Had the emphasis, then, been on “Treatment” and now on “Punishment” (“The War on Drugs”)? Are we going back to “Treatment” now that many middle-class persons, mostly who are white, are succumbing to Drug Overdoses? Are there overlaps with people of color and class in who are being targeted?   
In according with the content of our class discussions on this topic of Drug and Alcohol Users and Abusers your  term papers should reflect on how this specific population has disparately and disproportionally  contributed to “Massive Correctional Growth”;  the problems that ensued under these “Conditions of Correctional Supervision”, whether in the community or in institutions ; and , of course , their  eventual “Reentry” problems.  You should, of course, build off of your previously submitted essay on the Alexander Book, but emphasize the drug policies that were supposed to be “colorblind”,   and utilize vocabulary befitting of Senior/Junior majors in Criminal Justice in general and Correction specifically! Words and concepts, for example, from the Vocabulary & Constitutional Amendments Test you took in the beginning of the semester should be evident and utilized in your Term Paper! You should cite extensively from the assigned reading, chapter 28 in the Latesha text , “Social Consequences of the War on Drugs: The Legacy of Failed Policy” that gives an historic framework of how the policy ultimately failed!  In fact there should be a minimum of five sources that are reference in your Term Paper, including this chapter  
You are expected to go to the  elibrary to find other sources to reference in your paper as well as Google  where you will also find some source materials; just be sure they are academically orientated and not someone’s opinion piece!) 
         “Massive  Correctional Supervision”; sufficient Content Analysis to explain the populations inclusion in the Correctional Process; and strong 
            Citation/Documentation : All papers are to adhere to APA 6th Guidelines.  For a description of APA 6th guidelines refer to the college’s library website, research tools link.  Papers not written in APA 6th Edition style will not be accepted. In addition, all papers are to be written in 12 point font and in Times New Roman.  Papers written in other fonts or sizes will not be accepted. Papers are to have one (1) inch margins and are to be double spaced.