Overpopulated Prisons

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Overpopulation of prisons is a huge issue that this country is having. The cause of this overpopulation is due to the fact that addicts are being sent to prison and not getting the help that they need. Drug addicts are being treated as serious criminals when they should be treated like patients with a sickness because they are ill. Because drug addicts are being wrongfully committed, the prisons are being overpopulated by people who should not be there. Although drug addicts are committing crimes while on drugs, drug addicts should be sent to rehabilitation programs instead of prison because they can get the treatment that they need, they did not commit a major crime that should involve prison, and if drug addicts are sent to prison instead …show more content…
As Paul Gaita states in the article, “Justice Department to Reduce Federal Drug Sentences,” sending drug addicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison will lessen the number of overpopulated prisons. In the article, “We Should Be Sending Drug Addicts to the Hospital, Not Putting Them in Prison,” Matthew Rozsa tells about a police department that is changing their rules. If a drug addicts comes to their department with drug paraphernalia in hand and asks for help, they will not be charged with any crime. According to Mike Ward, author of “Texas Prison Population Shrinks as Rehabilitation Programs Take Root,” Texas prisons and other states are starting to send addicts to treatment programs instead of prisons. The programs are less expensive than prison, and it is helping with the overpopulation of the prison system. If more states start to send drug addicts, who have not committed any other crime, to rehabilitation programs, then the prison system would work much more …show more content…
In the article, “Texas Prison Population Shrinks as Rehabilitation Programs Take Root,” Mike Ward states that rehabilitation programs do not work for everybody. To elaborate, there is a woman, Sharon Padilla, who was sentenced three years in prison for the possession of cocaine. She went through several programs, but none of them, except prison, worked. In the article, “To Treat Drug Addiction, We’ll Still Need Jail Time,” Ed Gogek states that most addicts who actually want treatment have other issues that make it hard for them to get in or stay in treatment programs. In “The Long, Slow Push to Prison Sentencing Reform,” Aliyah Frumin argues that the prison system is good enough and does not need to be fixed or changed. As a result, drug addicts are still being sent to prison. It is understandable why the opposition believes that rehabilitation programs do not work. Many people go for months at a time and are then put back on the streets to do it all over again. Though it is a valid argument that rehabilitation programs do not work, prisons are being overpopulated; and sending drug addicts to rehabilitation programs can help to solve that