The Maryland Drug Court Has Failed - 2377 Words

The Maryland drug court has failed yet another person and he is now headed to prison. This person is the love of my life and my three month old son s father. It all started last Christmas. The day after Christmas his missed a urine test and was sent to jail for three weeks after informing his parole officer he was out of town. They told him â€Å"You are better off failing a urine test than to miss a test.† even though he submitted a test the very next day. He was the sole provider at the time because I couldn t work due to my high risk pregnancy and we were behind on bills. We lost everything because we could not catch up on the bills. I had to move back home and he moved in with his mother. He has a past drug problem and was sober for about†¦show more content†¦He told his parole and probation office that he would miss that particular class. Today he sits in jail waiting to be sentenced for how long he is going to be locked up. He had five years over his head. I am not going to say the drug court system is 100 percent to blame, but once something happens it is a downward spiral for many people in this area and he is the latest victim of this failing drug court system. The Maryland drug court system has failed plenty of people since it was first introduced 1993, because of the goals and requirements are unrealistic and the offenders with an actual serious drug problem in the program are not getting the proper treatments they need to successfully stay clean once they graduate. In this essay elaborate on the practices that should be changed and if rehabilitation, detoxification and opioid treatments need to be available were to be implemented it would improve the program and keep people like my loved one on the right track and not headed to prison. In response to the war on drugs, law enforcement started to crack down on misdemeanor drug laws and increased the convictions for possession and soon after the minor drug violations started to flood the jails and prisons. So to resolve the repeat offenders coming back and serving lengthy sentences, the first drug court was established in Miami-Dade County in Florida in 1989. Many more states and counties followed suit including Maryland in 1993. There has been