Of those that are arrested by law enforcement, approximately 4 million Americans are now categorized as convicted felons based off the crimes they committed relating to their drug offense. Currently, there are nearly 500,000 people that are incarcerated in the nation due to violating the laws pertaining to illegal substances. As of today, the United States currently has the highest prison population, which has resulted in prison overcrowding and a lack of resources in terms of treatment programs for the drug offenders once they are in the institutional setting in order to seek treatment as part of their sentence ordered by the judge. Sentences for nonviolent drug offenders are seen to be as somewhat “excessive”. These unreasonably extensive sentences, particularly these mandatory minimum sentences should be reduced so that the sentence reflects the crime. There are currently people that are incarcerated for drug offenses that are serving the same time as someone that has been convicted of second degree murder, which are on two completely different spectrums of the scale and should be treated differently in a court of …show more content…
We need to emphasize our focus on shifting our funding primacies from interdiction and prosecution of offenders and illegal drugs to a better- balanced approach that is more practical and preemptive. Since the 1980s, our Nation’s Policy makers have positioned principal importance on the role of our law enforcement in our National Drug Control Strategy. Our Federal Courts have been flooded with drug cases. And a majority of the budget allocated for anti-drug ingenuities has been selected for law enforcement and interdiction, while only a small portion has actually been dedicated to demand-reduction procedures such as education, prevention, and treatment. In April of 2008, President George Bush had enacted the Second Chance Act, this Act approved around $160 million per year over the span of two years to give aid to people that were in prison, those that were returning into their communities, and children who had parents that were