On an edition of NBCÆs Meet The Press, former White House drug policy chief General Barry McCaffrey argued, ôOur challenge right now is young people and crime. Thos are the two places where it seems to me weÆve got to get movingö (Neal, 1996, 1). While the number of overall Americans using illegal drugs has declined over the past two decades, the number of young people using illegal drugs has increased. According to White House statistics, there has been ôa sharp rise in the number of young people smoking marijuanaö (Neal, 1992, 1).
Drug abuse typically leads to other social problems such as crime and violence. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), drug-related problems include: increased rates of crime and violence, susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, demand for treatment and emergency room visits and a breakdown in social behavior (Drug, 2003, 1). In order to combat increasing drug-related crime among youth, politicians, the American public, and the criminal justice system have begun treating juveniles more like adult offenders. This is true in terms of stricter laws regarding drug use, tougher sentencing guidelines, and longer incarceration periods. As reported by NCH, the ôrate of offending young people is declining, but the numbers of young people receiving sentences are increasingö (Youth, 2003, 1). Such a phenomenon is the direct result of public furor over increasing levels of drug-related criminal activity among youth.
An increasing number of youths are being incarcerated for drug-related crimes. Youths in such facilities often are exposed to older, more violent adults. So, too, they often receive little training with respect to education, employment, and rehabilitation. Because of this, many leave prison more anti-social than when they entered. In light of such realities, many in favor of alternative forms of punishment for youth drug offenders who commit crimes a...