Prosecution of Drug Cases inside and outside of the Court System Essay

Prosecution of Drug Cases inside and outside of the Court System - Essay Example The conclusion will entail what the best tactics are found to be to keep drug trafficking and abuse down to a minimal problem in society. One main problem with illegal drug distribution and correct prosecution is that judges have to do a job that would normally take two of them. Illegal immigrants are constantly smuggling drugs in over the border, and the state of Arizona is swamped with cases in the federal court because of this issue (Gustos 2001). Because of this and the lack of judges many offenders on this charge walk, which leads to many more complications. The border courts don't even prosecute some of these offenders (in certain areas) unless they have been apprehended at least ten times. Therefore the border control is left with a heavy burden outside the court system. They officially file how many times an offender has been arrested and when it reaches the ten mark limit they will go to trial and be federally prosecuted (Gustos 2001). The South West Border initiative, which was launched by the Clinton Administration, works well outside of the court system by controlling what comes across the border and who. However, even though this iniative helped keep control of the criminal drug activities seeping into America, it did little to helping the Federal Court system because there remained a shortage of judges while there was an increase in border control officers, immigration officials, and drug enforcement administration agents. It is the border control itself that seems to be the strongest point of the U.S. in gaining control of the drug trafficking problem. Containing those who would distribute drugs inside the U.S., at the border, is where the federal government is focusing its strengths to minimize this heavy concern and to also lift some of the burden from the border control court system. To further assist inside the courts there are two versions of a bill from 2001 which were introduced to the House and Senate for approval. This has allowed for 18 more judges to be instated into the border court system to properly prosecute these cases (Gustos 2001). The Actions of the Court System on Drug Cases The court system has found an alternative to incarceration and it is found to be that for those with lower drug charges, they are better suited for rehabilitation by psychological counseling rather than serving jail time (Koopman 2006). The Behavioral Court system works with offenders who obviously have mental incompetence of their actions and criminal behaviors. The greatest achievement of this specific courts process is how well they have the offender monitored for continuing drug use by the courts three person staff (Koopman 2006). These types of offenders receive the proper treatment; go through rehabilitation services, as well as mental health clinic agencies to achieve a life free from drug abuse and criminal interactions with it. In this regard