AMERICA’S INEFFECTIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, A PARADOX
By Richard E. “Rick” Dennis CPP Freelance Writer and Author December 20, 2022 © All Rights Reserved DRUGS, ALCOHOL, ADDICTION, AND CRIME As a former Drug Enforcement Special Agent and Law Enforcement Professional of 18 years, I witnessed; first hand, the devastating effects drug and alcohol addiction impacts a free society. After all, I was on the first line of defense on the War on Drugs being waged by law enforcement and the Federal Government. As enforcement agents it was our job to investigate, arrest, incarcerate, prosecute, and imprison as many illegal drug manufactures, importers, and distributors as we could. During my journey, I discovered a myriad important facts concerning our efforts in the War on Drugs with one fact standing out as the most important: The United States of America has a dysfunctional and disingenuous judicial system. As one judicial authority once told me, “In the War on Drugs, the courtroom is a hole in the ground drug violators throw money into to keep judges and lawyers in business.” During my 18 year tenure, I also learned other important lessons such as: Our judicial system is to slow and inundated with too many laws to maintain pace with the drug and alcohol offenders being arrested and prosecuted. However, perhaps the most important lesson I learned was: Repeat offenders were slipping through the judicial cracks and were being denied the opportunities for rehabilitation and mental health counseling they deserved in order to break the cycle of drug abuse and addiction. Today, not much has changed in the USA’s War on Drugs. More specifically, drug offenders are being arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned in record numbers, court rooms are packed with violators, prisons are overcrowded with drug offender inmates, repeat offenders are common place in our society and the courtroom, police officers are still dying in the line of duty as two of my partners did during gun fights, more drugs are being illegally imported in the USA than ever before, the hole in the ground called a court room is still collecting fines, drug addicts aren’t receiving the treatment and mental health services they deserve to break the chain of addiction, and the USA is still losing the War on Drugs. DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE, ADDICTION, AND CRIME The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics report: 1.6 million Americans including Illegal Aliens are arrested annually for drug related crimes, 80% of all incarcerated prison inmates abuse illegal drugs or alcohol. An estimated 244 thousand Americans are sentenced annually to prison for drug related crimes. Furthermore, 26% of all arrests in America are related to drug offenses. Even though the percentage of drug related arrests are small in comparison to the overall population of the USA, drug related crimes represent the highest category of violent crimes. Example: It’s estimated that as much as 80% of all violent crimes committed by individuals in the USA are drug related. Violent crime categories including: Gun and other weapons violence (assaults), Rape, Robbery, Murder, Car Jacking, and Burglary. However, the reasons for these drug related violent crimes can be broken down into three sub segments or groups as the “Root Cause Contributing Factors.” More specifically: 1) Crimes committed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 2) Economic related crimes to support their drug or alcohol addiction. Example: Robbery, Burglary, Theft, Drug Dealing, and Prostitution are the five main crimes committed in order to support drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. 3) System-related crimes are those that result from how drugs are sold and how the criminal justice system deals with drug dealers. These crime categories include: The manufacture, importation, transporting, and distribution (selling) of drugs as well as the violence produced by the illegal drug trade activities such as: Street and Gang Violence as well as Turf Wars among domestic drug dealers and international drug cartels. Notwithstanding, the root causes of addiction are: CHRONIC STRESS, a history of trauma, mental illness and a family history of addiction. Understanding how these can lead to chronic substance abuse and addiction will help an individual in reducing his or her chances of becoming addicted, re-entering a life of crime, and staying out of prison and that hole in the ground called a courtroom. ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ADDICTION The FBI cites drunkenness or public intoxication as a crime, it is labeled a misdemeanor crime in order to prevent the drunk person from disturbing or hurting others. Alcohol related crimes include drunk driving and homicide. Approximately 316,032 Americans are arrested for drunkenness annually, 10,511 deaths annually are attributed to drunk driving, 7,334 homicides annually have alcohol as a contributing factor, and 48% of homicide convicts were drinking before they committed murder. TREATING DRUG ABUSE AND ADDICTION IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM “According to an article appearing in the American Medical Association, despite increasing evidence that addiction is a treatable disease of the brain, most individuals do not receive treatment. Involvement in the criminal justice system often results from illegal drug seeking behavior and participation in illegal activities that reflect, in part, disrupted behavior ensuing from brain changes triggered by repeated drug use. Treating drug involved offenders provides a unique opportunity to decrease substance abuse and reduce associated criminals behavior.” However, while incarcerated the addict may or may not be sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program which, essentially, produces a revolving door effect for offenders missing out on this vital opportunity to break the chains of addiction. Therefore, the offender is paroled from prison and in a matter of time re-enters the illegal drug trade and addiction. In order to win the War on Drugs, in the USA, the judicial system has to revamp its laws and drug offenders need to receive proper mental health. Until this occurs, the wheels of justice will still turn slowly, the majorly of drug offenders will become repeat offenders, and judges and lawyers will have a steady income. LEGAL DRUG ADDICTION AND ABUSE Another contributing factor in the War on Drugs are classified as professional addicts. All on their own, Big Pharma and Physicians are producing a significant number of addicts with their prescribed drugs; especially drugs of the opioid variety or Class II through V drugs, which can be entered into a classification of their own. After all, pharmaceuticals drugs are big business representing billions of dollars in annual revenues. Patients are being prescribed highly addictive drugs and Physicians are being paid by the pharmaceutical companies to prescribe certain drugs, some of which are highly addictive. Will the USA win the War on Drugs, probably not. Simply, there are too many variables in the equation, of Justice, to disrupt the cycle of addiction and crime related drug offenses and not enough drug addicts are receiving the drug treatment and mental health options and services they need, in order to break the cycle of addiction and the crime that goes along with it! “UNTIL NEXT TIME, KEEP EM BETWEEN THE BRIDLE”
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A CHRISTMAS REFLECTION – THEN AND NOW
By Richard E. “Rick” Dennis CPP Freelance Writer and Author Copyright 2020 – All Rights Reserved December 4, 2022 THEN … As a youngster growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s, I lived in a plush valley located between two mountain ranges. More specifically, the valley was located between Oak Mountain and Double Oak Mountain. Both mountain ranges are spurs of the Appalachian’s and located in Shelby County, Alabama. During this era, the valley was known by its Native American name; Fungo Holler; as it was aptly called, was a principle farming community as was making bootlegged (home made) moonshine whiskey. Notwithstanding, I was fortunate to be born into a family and community where Christmas was the most celebrated holiday of the year. My grandfather; Papa Johnson, and my grandmother; Jeanette Dennis Johnson, owned a two and a half room wooden farm house in the valley. However, the farm house wasn’t without its draw backs. More specifically, the house was barren of: Indoor plumbing, running water, or electricity. Water was drawn from the well outside and carried into the house by bucket. The house was heated by wood and coal in a cast iron pot belly stove and my grandmother Jeanette cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a wood burning stove. The half room was Grandmother Jeanette’s sewing room where she crafted clothes, pillow cases, and what not’s on a manually operated singer sewing machine. In addition to clothes my grandmother also made quilts on a quilting board. Clothes washing and bathing took place in a number three wash tub. In the early 1960’s, electricity finally arrived, via, the Tennessee Valley Authority. The house had one electric line and one light bulb suspended from the ceiling by an electric cord and kerosene lanterns were used to light up the rest of the house. By today’s standards, some would say our family was poor – but we never recognized that class distinction. Everyone living in the valley had no more or no less that the other inhabitants. Growing up, I always had plenty to eat, 22 bullets to shoot and hunt with, several pairs of overalls to wear and at least one pair of boots to wear a year. Everything, with the exception of a few commodities purchased from WORDS STORE was grown and harvested on the farm. Before school and after school as well as when I wasn’t in school, hard work and assigned chores were the standard practice of the day. Being the oldest child in our family, I had a never-ending supply of work requiring my daily attention. I never quite figure out why being the oldest meant you were assigned more work. I always figured being the oldest meant you could be assigned a managerial role and delegate chores to my siblings. However, I soon learned this philosophy wasn’t a viable thought process with my parents, nor my grandparents. Horses and mules weren’t used for recreational or exhibition purposes, as they are today. Instead, my family, as well as other families in my community, used these noble animals principally for: Plowing, cultivating, and harvesting crops in the fields to provide food for the table, feed our livestock, and cash crops for transport, by train, to the farmers market in Birmingham, Alabama. Often times, these animals were also used as our principle harvester transportation bringing trees out of the mountains for milling at the sawmill for lumber which was used for building purposes as well as providing firewood for the wood-burning heater and the cook stove. During this time period, tractors were non-existent. Also back then, fruits and vegetables were preserved by a canning process. Meats of all varieties were preserved using a smoke house, various drying technique, or stored in a lard barrel for preservation and consumption. Each year, during the early part of December my family and community; as a whole, were catapulted into the Spirit of Christmas, which meant it was time to go up on Oak Mountain for the much awaited and anticipated Christmas tree cutting. My grandmother Jeanette, on my father’s side, was the matriarch of the designated Christmas tree selection and harvesting process. My grandmother, born out of a Scottish father and mother, always seemed to have a spiritual connection with the tree she selected. We would move over the mountains for hours viewing what seemed an endless supply of trees – but after each evaluation she would either accept or decline the tree, saying: “Nope, not the right tree!” Often times this matriarchal tree scrutiny and survey continued for hours and miles of hard walking but always under the watchful eye of my grandmother, until the moment of truth arrived when suddenly - she would stop by a tree, grab and shake it, mentally eye it up and down, walk around it several times and turn with a big smile on her face and declare, “Kids, this is our Christmas tree!” With the selection process over, the tree was harvested by the oldest family members with an axe or crosscut saw, or both, and promptly loaded onto the sled and pulled home with each family member sharing their turn on the pull rope. When we arrived at home there weren’t any pre-manufactured store bought ornaments to decorate our tree with but we did have an ample supply of hand-made decorations acquired over the years from various family members. Each family member possessed one special ornament with his or her name scribed on it which made for a fast scramble to the ornament box to be the first to put their ornament on the tree. The remaining ornaments were made by us. Popcorn was popped, colored with food dye into various colors, strung on sewing thread and hung on the tree to form a sea of riveting colors. Mistletoe harvested from our trees adorned the top of each door frame. Everything kids could think of were eventually hung on our Christmas tree until the matriarch affixed the Star of David on top, signaling the decorating was over. If I lean back in my desk chair and close my eyes, I can still smell the daily tantalizing aroma of my grandmother’s Christmas pies, cookies, fudge, and candy being baked in the oven. With the kitchen window open, we were able inhale that delectable aroma all over the yard. The most valuable lessons I learned from my early childhood experiences and the “Spirit of Christmas” are – the family is the most valuable commodity we have, never forget your roots, always give something back, it’s better to give than to receive and it doesn’t matter how much or what you have, make the best of it because often times - more is not necessarily better. NOW … Today some Christmas trees are artificial and come complete out of a box, including lights and decorations. Christmas tree decorations and ornaments are manufactured in foreign lands in various sizes, shapes and colors and are readily available for purchase at department stores. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year have been replaced by the politically correct euphemism “Happy Holidays” and another politically correct euphemism has replaced “A Christmas Party” with “A Winter Party.” Horses and mules have been replaced by tractors as the principle cultivation tool in the farming community while the noble animals of yesterday have establishing themselves as the principle means of recreation for the equestrian community. In fact, an entire equestrian industry has evolved around the noble horse as well as the businesses that have emerged to support them: tack shops, feed stores, judges, horse training facilities, horse breeding facilities, medical facilities and veterinarians, drug manufacturers, truck and horse trailer manufacturers, equestrian magazines, bit makers, saddle makers, etc., and include the nonprofit organizations that have evolved to support this industry. In the equestrian industry today, we are very lucky to have nonprofit’s such as the American Quarter Horse Association, National Cutting Horse Association, National Reined Cow Horse Association and the National Reining Horse Association, as well as other breed specific horse organizations that provide us with a place to exhibit our stock (professional and non-pro alike), meet new folks in the spirit of competition and establish new friendships along the way. These organizations are not always perfect but a lot of folks rely on these equestrian organizations, as well as the guys and gals that run them, as a source of revenue to provide sustenance for their families in the spirit of entrepreneurship. They not only provide a single source of revenue for some but a lot of enjoyment for families and individuals in the equestrian industry. Therefore, in the Spirit of Christmas, I would like to personally thank you – one and all for your time spent in these wonderful organizations and the contributions made by each one of you to support the equine industry. In my journey, I’ve never lost sight of the core principles I learned as a boy nor have I forgotten my roots or the “Spirit of Christmas!” In keeping with these core principles, it has been my policy throughout my professional career to always give something back to the community from my professions: free drug lectures to schools, free time spent as a mentor with under-privileged children and free riding lessons for the youth – no matter what their financial position, their gender, or race. Over the years, my students have always generously paid me back by providing me with an exhilarating feeling from just watching their eyes light up when they finally execute a maneuver correctly or after completing their first show. When I see such happiness in a child’s eyes, it reminds me of days long ago on Oak Mountain harvesting that special Christmas tree on that cold winter day and that special lesson I learned during a time in my life long ago. “It truly is better to give than receive!” Therefore, at this very special time of the year, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our progress possible. It is with the “Spirit of Christmas,” my memories of OAK MOUNTAIN and personal gratitude that I wish each and everyone one of you, especially the avid readers of “WIND RIVER INDUSTRY NEWS,” as well as all those in the equine industry, a Merry Christmas and a most prosperous, safe, and Happy New Year! “Until Next Time, Keep ‘Em Between The Bridle” |
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