Forced Drug Testing
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- Category: Politics: Crime and Drugs
- Date Submitted: 02/06/2011 10:16 AM
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Forced Drug Testing
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Student
University Of Phoenix
CJA-373
There has been much debate over the effectiveness of Pretrial drug testing and programs over the years. In the late 90's a directive was enacted by president Bill Clinton to implement a policy that all individuals with felony charges would undergo mandatory drug testing before they could be eligible for release or trial. (Gist, 1999). The reasoning behind this policy was to be able to predict, monitor and control the many individuals who were sent through the system on a regular basis. The goal was to eliminate the reasons that cause an individual to flee after posting bail and skipping his or her court date and reduce the instances of pre-trial misconduct. These programs can be an effective method of predicting and preventing pretrial misconduct as long as the case warrants it and justice is carried out fairly. Drug testing is an effective way to gather information that will support other factors to gain insight into the possibility of whether a person may flee or not. Individuals arrested on felony charges dealing with drugs. (e.g. Use, distribution, transport) Should be drug tested since their state is directly tied to the crime. Additionally, drug dependence results in an altered state in which a person may not think clearly.
However, not all individuals arrested should be forced to take a drug test due to the fact that at present there is no definitive correlation between drug use and pretrial misconduct. Additionally, the drug testing is very expensive which begs the question of whether or not its use can be justified. Studies have concluded that the drug testing policy has overall produced inconsistent and inconclusive results compared to the intent of the program. (Harold & Kleiman 2000) Overall, there is no verifiable evidence that indicates that drug testing is an effective method of reducing failure to appear rates or pretrial crime.
Pretrial programs have been...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Student
University Of Phoenix
CJA-373
There has been much debate over the effectiveness of Pretrial drug testing and programs over the years. In the late 90's a directive was enacted by president Bill Clinton to implement a policy that all individuals with felony charges would undergo mandatory drug testing before they could be eligible for release or trial. (Gist, 1999). The reasoning behind this policy was to be able to predict, monitor and control the many individuals who were sent through the system on a regular basis. The goal was to eliminate the reasons that cause an individual to flee after posting bail and skipping his or her court date and reduce the instances of pre-trial misconduct. These programs can be an effective method of predicting and preventing pretrial misconduct as long as the case warrants it and justice is carried out fairly. Drug testing is an effective way to gather information that will support other factors to gain insight into the possibility of whether a person may flee or not. Individuals arrested on felony charges dealing with drugs. (e.g. Use, distribution, transport) Should be drug tested since their state is directly tied to the crime. Additionally, drug dependence results in an altered state in which a person may not think clearly.
However, not all individuals arrested should be forced to take a drug test due to the fact that at present there is no definitive correlation between drug use and pretrial misconduct. Additionally, the drug testing is very expensive which begs the question of whether or not its use can be justified. Studies have concluded that the drug testing policy has overall produced inconsistent and inconclusive results compared to the intent of the program. (Harold & Kleiman 2000) Overall, there is no verifiable evidence that indicates that drug testing is an effective method of reducing failure to appear rates or pretrial crime.
Pretrial programs have been...