Smuggling of Drugs Into Prison

Prison Substance Abuse

If there are two things that plague prisons the most other than violence, they would obviously be drug dependency and mental illness. Quite often, there is a combination of the two in the same prisoners. However, there is also the problem of active drug use and dealing in prison and that shall be the focus of this brief research report. Within this report, there will be a statement of purpose, a description of the research design, the overall research findings, a discussion section and then a conclusion with a resolution. References to scholarly literature will pervade this report. While prisons and their personnel due to their best to curb or even stop substance abuse in prison, the influx of drugs is never-ending and the importation thereof is done in many different ways.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this study is fairly easy. The amount of literature about drug dependency and mental illness in general as it relates to prisons is quite voluminous and mountainous. However, the study of actual drug use is not quite as easy to find given that it is obviously much harder to track and define as it is often done on the sly. Indeed, whether someone is mentally ill and/or on drugs is easy enough through mental testing and drug tests, respectively. However, drug use in prison is done through smuggling, deceit and sometimes even the personnel of the prisons look the other way or are actively involved in the movement of drugs that are illegal, at least in the form that they are being rendered (e.g. non-prescription OxyContin abuse). The problem is that drugs are making their way into prisons and addicts are thus allowed to continue or even raise the level of addiction they have. This obviously makes them harder to control, more volatile, more violent and more likely to bring harm to themselves due to things like overdosing, engaging in dangerous behavior and so forth. The depth and breadth of this problem as well as what is being done to address that same problem shall be explored.

Research Design

The research design of this report will be pretty simple. The author will use the EBSCO academic search engine and will use only peer-reviewed and other academic journals as sources. Using periodicals, websites and other sources is extremely hit and miss and peer-reviewed journals in particular are much more authoritative because the author has subjected the material to a screening and review process to ensure the reliability, validity, legitimacy and applicability of the findings contained therein.

Research Findings

One major issue when it comes to substance abuse in prisons is that not only does it occur within prison walls, it is quite often not treated (or not as vigorously as it should be) when it is obviously needed and/or requested by a given prisoner. This is true even in more progressive European countries like Finland (Obstbaum, and Tyni). Further, what happens to current or former drug addicts seems to widely differ based on the subgroup that is in question. Such was the case when this subject was looked at in relation to prisons in Australia. Of 52,015 people that were released a total of 82,315 times from prison, there were about 2,100 deaths after release. Further, people of indigenous ancestry were more likely to die and they were more likely to die in the first four weeks after release from prison. Presumably, the released prisons immediately flocked to drugs and would end up going on excessive binges that would get them killed (Forsyth).

One tactic that has been used in the United States to combat the vicious cycle of addicts going from bad to worse based on the way they are assigned in terms of where they serve their sentence comes in the form of sending prisoners to places other than state prison when it comes time for them to serve their sentence. A study done in 2015 looks at the overall lifetime benefits and costs involved when it comes to diverting people from the state prisons as mentioned above. The study notes that prisons are extremely rich in people that have some sort of drug problem. Indeed, the figure is probably about a half, although it depends on the prison. Rather than relegate these prisoners to state prison, there is instead a shift towards community-based drug treatment. The study found that there are indeed failures that come to pass and some people still recidivate even after getting a community-based intervention. At the same time, there is a net societal gain in allowing for more rehab options when it comes to prisoners that clearly need assistance in beating drugs. It requires a prisoner or patient that is wanting and willing to get help but this is actually true of a lot of people that are addicted (Zarkin et al.).

The diversion of prisoners from state prison when it comes to drugs is probably a good idea based on the results of another study. In many cases, drug use and mental illness are comorbid. The mental illness side of the coin can be because of the drugs or it can be aggravated by it. Either way, there is a much higher tendency for assaults and other violence to occur when someone is drug-addled and mentally ill at the same time. Further, the violence laid out by these addicts is cyclical and goes in all directions. About half of the time, a person that is attacked or harmed in an assault is quite often also a prior perpetrator of violence. For sure, some of this is simple retaliation and based on things like gang turf wars. Even so, the drug and mental illness factors cannot be left out of the calculation of what causes and perpetuates violence in the prisons of the United States and other countries (Wood, and Buttaro)

Discussion