I do not believe that this occurred because people became less concerned about the welfare of prisoners, or that America had simply become 'hardened' to the idea of trying to help people. I believe it merely came out of a frustration on the part of Americans who were desperate for an alternative that actually worked. Every night on the news, people are bombarded with story after story about criminal behaviors and growing crime rates, so it is entirely understandable that American's would throw their arms up in exasperation, and say 'let's try something else!' Frustration has always been a powerful catalyst for change, and the criminal justice system is no exception. But is this frustration the most powerful reason behind the replacement of the medical model with the justice model? Or is there something else that needs to be considered? Perhaps it was the war on drugs that drove this transition.
THE 'WAR ON DRUGS' EXPLANATION
The 'official' war on drugs was first waged in 1971 when President Richard Nixon publicly declared the waging of this war. This was followed up by the "Just Say No" campaign launched by First Lady Nancy Reagan in the 1982. The entire mentality of these campaigns was based on the idea that we are standing on a battlefield that we need to defend at all costs. The prevalence of these anti-drug campaigns was so extreme, and the tactics so commercial, that it was difficult during these decades to thing of drugs (and the criminals that buy, sell and use them) as anything but the enemy. Therefore, the idea of incarceration as a punishment rather than a form of
CONCLUSION
In this paper, I have discussed three possible explanations for America's replacement of the medical model with the justice model. These are: 1) The political explanation; 2) The frustration explanation; and 3) The "War on Drugs" explanation. While all of these explanations make logical sense and each has contributed in its own way to the transition, I believe that #2: the frustration explanation is the one that had the most powerful effect. As I mentioned above, frustration is always a powerful and dynamic impetus for change; something that was made abundantly clear in the last Presidential election. My research has definitely led me to the conclusion that the 'frustration explanation' is the most valid. I do believe however, that further research is needed as to how the media helps to perpetuate these frustrations, and how much of their reporting is realistic, and how much is just sensationalism?
References
Barlow, D.E. & Barlow, M.H. (1993) Cultural diversity training in criminal justice: a progressive or conservative reform? Social Justice, 20 (3/4), 69-84.
Robinson, M.B. & Scherlen, R.G. (2007) Lies, damned lies, and drug war statistics: a critical analysis of claims made by the office of National Drug Control Policy. SUNY Press.
Sparks, R. (1996). Prison Histories: reform, repression and rehabilitation in E. McLaughlin and J. Muncie (eds) Controlling Crime, London: Sage for the Open University
Williams, V.L. (1996) Dictionary of American penology. Westport,…
