Reiman's "The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison" - Drugs

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5 pages in length. Chapter I of Jeffrey Reiman's The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison addresses the very questions Americans have been asking ever since the so-called war on drugs was waged. What readers quickly realize is how the quest to control illegal drug use within various populations is - as with most other important issues - based upon very complex socioeconomic undercurrents. Answers do exist to the overwhelming drug problem, however, they are cocooned within such political rigmarole and manipulation that actually applying a solution is fraught with struggle. Reiman (2006) clearly acknowledges how imprisonment is hardly the answer, inasmuch as overpopulation is one of the most pressing issues in today's penal system. Instead, the answer is preventive rather than reactive: keep the problem from perpetuating by not treating the symptom but rather addressing the core issues. No additional sources cited.