Impact of Drug Offenders on the Criminal Justice System (From Drugs, Crime and the Criminal Justice System, P 27-78, 1990, Ralph Weisheit, ed., -- See NCJ-123316)

• NCJ Number: 123319
• Author(s): S Belenko
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 52 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

An unprecedented surge in the number of drug arrests and in the percentage of drug-involved offenders has caused enormous management and policy problems for the criminal justice system.

Abstract

This extraordinary number of drug arrests has place tremendous burdens on already overloaded urban court systems, leading to severe over-crowding of detention facilities, increased prosecutor and public defender caseloads, case delay, and the need for substantial additional court resources. The available data on bail setting and pretrial detention rates also suggest a tendency toward harsher treatment of drug offenders by the courts. However, the existence of a severe jail and prison overcrowding problem is limiting the court's options. Options available to the criminal justice system to remedy these problems are the identification of drug-using offenders, pretrial and post-conviction interventions, more treatment facilities, and case processing initiatives. Policy issues and potential problems arising out of consideration for these options include effects on case delay, net-widening problems, due process and constitutional issues, cost issues, and treatment availability. 74 references, 6 tables, 1 figure.