When the general public is
under attack from criminal elements, the response to stop the flow of
crime must be swift and decisive to have the greatest positive
effect. Left unhindered, those involved in criminal activities will
wreak havoc as they force entire communities into submission. This
capitulation occurs in Scioto County, and I believe it is being aided
and abetted by certain elements of the recovery and rehabilitation
community.
The U.S. Department of
Justice lists three types of offenses:
- Crimes Against Persons – such as assault, battery, domestic violence, rape, and murder
- Crimes Against Property – such as vandalism, shoplifting, robbery, bribery, burglary, and arson
- Crimes Against Society – such as gambling, prostitution, drug violations, and weapon law violations
As a concerned
and lawful citizen, my duty is to prevent crimes against people,
against their property, and against the society of my fellow man.
However, of late, to most of us in Scioto County, these obligations
– and I can fully understand why – have largely dwindled to
maintaining close family concerns with a general indifference to
society as a whole. Maintaining personal obligations to the nuclear
family, such as insuring their health and safety, have become so
stressful and time consuming that many people ignore their
commitment to stop crimes against society.
People still
living here, especially those in what are considered to be the middle
and lower economic classes, have become acclimated to “living among
them” – the element that perpetrates crime. Well-meaning people
pay lip service to change. They say “Something ought to be done”
or “I wish someone would clean this up,” but they do not take on
their own obligations to the community to become a part of the
solution.
Scioto County is a
depressed Appalachian locality crippled by the opioid epidemic and
all of the misdeeds and offenses perpetrated by those criminals who
operate within that drug system. Hope should anchor itself to efforts
to better society by getting tough on repeat offenders – those who
employ drugs and crime to drag down local communities. It is time to
deny the “third, fourth, and fifth chances” and criminals' carte
blanche access to our communities Instead, we must stand tall as
community members to fight repeat offenders, and that includes
stopping any complicity with recovery and rehab services.
I have no doubt
that one major problem in the Scioto recovery community is that good
and honest efforts to rehabilitate clients often shield the criminal
element. When this occurs, it is society that suffers. Not only does
recovery have a duty to clients, but also it has an even greater
duty to protect the public from harm. No one should have to suffer
the crimes perpetrated by those who abuse recovery and rehab.
A
Bureau of Justice report released in 2017 revealed that 21% of
sentenced people in state prisons and local jails are incarcerated
for crimes committed to obtain drugs or money for drugs. Almost 40%
of people locked up for property crimes and 14% of those incarcerated
for violent crimes reported that they had committed their most
serious offense for drug-related reasons.
(Jennifer Bronson,
Ph.D., and Jessica Stroop, BJS Statisticians Stephanie Zimmer and
Marcus Berzofsky, Dr.P.H., RTI International. “Drug Use,
Dependence, and Abuse Among State Prisoners and Jail Inmates,
2007-2009.” U.S. Department of Justice. June 2017.)
Some research shows that
an estimated 65% percent of the United States prison population has
an active substance abuse disorder. Another 20% percent did not meet
the official criteria for an SUD, but were under the influence of
drugs or alcohol at the time of their crime.
The Office of National
Drug Control Policy (2013) found as offenders are arrested for more
offenses, the likelihood that they have only drug crimes or only
non-drug crimes as prior offenses decreases. Criminals with a
substantial history of arrests are more likely to have a combination
of drug and non-drug crimes in their background.
A series of panel data
analyses were conducted among more than 5,000 jurisdictions
nationwide from 1995 to 2002 to assess the impact of drug court
implementation grants on UCR Part I felony offenses. Consistent with
prior findings, drug court implementation grants were associated with
net increases in vehicle theft, burglary, larceny, and some violent
offenses.
David R. Lilly wrote in
“Drug Courts and Community Crime Rates: A Nationwide Analysis of
Jurisdiction-Level Outcomes,” Journal of Criminology (2013)
…
“Drug court
procedures should be designed to more quickly identify noncompliant
individuals and ensure that they do not remain unsupervised and
unaccountable in the community for extended periods of time
(including those who are removed from the program).
“Moreover, the legal
authority of drug court judges to incarcerate noncompliant
individuals should be clearly specified so that persons who are
diverted prior to trial for burglary, vehicle theft, or other
offenses cannot find a loophole in the process. Alternatively, drug
courts could be limited strictly to postconviction individuals.”
Another study that
involved random assignment of eligible individuals noted that the
average drug court participant had twelve prior
arrests. Taken together, these studies suggest that drug court
participants were not solely comprised of minor and infrequent
offenders, but rather that a substantial portion were involved in
serious nondrug-related felonies prior to admission.
(D. C. Gottfredson, B.
W. Kearley, and S. D. Bushway, “Substance use, drug treatment, and
crime: an examination of intra-individual variation in a drug court
population,” Journal of Drug Issues, vol. 38, no. 2, pp.
601–630, 2008.)
The challenge of
delivering treatment requires the cooperation and coordination of two
essentially different cultures: the criminal justice system organized
to punish the offender and protect society and the drug abuse
treatment systems organized to help the addicted individual.
Addressing addiction as a
disease does not remove the responsibility of the individual. Rather
it highlights the personal responsibility of the addicted person to
seek and adhere to drug treatment and that of society to ensure that
such treatment is available and based on scientific evidence.
A drug abuse treatment
system that harbors, shelters, and abets repeat criminal offenders
who terrorize and pillage Scioto neighborhoods should be reformed.
Those who work in the treatment programs should never connive to
condone or to allow criminal activity. In a despondent area like
Scioto County, one helping hand aids the other dirty fist. Frankly,
the public is sick of the collaboration. They want the fear, the
crime, and the desperation to end.
The only way to end the
grip of addiction and crime in Scioto County is to apply public
pressure and stand up against those who repeat offenses. You can
sense a confident thug attitude in many who believe the present
arrangement protects their criminal behaviors. These offenders use
and abuse the systems of treatment and justice over and over and
over. This is going to continue until a significant group of citizens
organize to effect needed change.
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