Matthew Perry and All Rise Advocate for Drug Courts
Drug Courts provide a phenomenal service to the non-violent offender, their family and society as a whole. How? Because they treat the root cause of the problem – drug addiction. Given addiction is now scientifically understood to be a chronic, often relapsing – but entirely treatable – brain disease, it is little wonder an addict on drugs commits a non-violent crime because the brain controls everything a person thinks, feels, says and does. Their brain is not functioning normally because they have chemically and structurally changed their brain as a consequence of their brain disease. Drug courts offer a means of keeping non-violent drug offenders in treatment longer so they might recover from their brain disease, which then means they will more likely not re-offend; they will not be a burden to society; and they will be the person their family knows them to be – the person they were before their brain was hijacked by their disease.
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The following guest post on Drug Courts is provided by Deona Hooper, MSW. Deona is the Founder, Creator, and Editor-in-Chief of Social Work Helper Magazine. Technology is her passion, but social work is her calling. She has a Masters in Social Work with a concentration in Management and Community Practice with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She can be reached at deona@socialworkhelper.com.
Matthew Perry and All Rise Advocate for Drug Courts by Deona Hooper, MSW
“When a court orders an addict to treatment instead of prison, we All Rise” ~ Martin Sheen
Deona Hooper, MSW, shares her thoughts about Drug Courts.
I am always elated when a person conquers their demons, and then uses it to help elevate someone else. Amazingly, Matthew Perry is one of many individuals working with All Rise who are lending their celebrity to help bring about awareness on issues that would only fall off the lips of the poor, imprisoned, or invisible. Matthew Perry made a recent appearance on Hardball to discuss how his drug addiction could have easily landed him into prison. Although he should have been riding high on his success with the hit television show, The Good Housewife, Matthew disclosed how he needed a certain amount of pain pills to get him through each day. Matthew is thankful his activities never got him arrested, but he stated that is not the case for the majority of Americans. Matthew along with many others are advocating for government funding to Drug Courts because they make sense, cost-effective, and measurable. The biggest barrier for prevention programs aren’t funding, it’s for profit prisons. As long as sending people to prison is incentivized, there is no incentive to find solutions.
According to the All Rise National Association of Drug Court Professionals website:
“For centuries, anyone with business before the court has heard two words called out by the bailiff or court officer. Two words that demand everyone in the courtroom to come to attention. Two words that create order amidst chaos. Those two words are ALL RISE!
In Drug Court, these two words have an even greater meaning. These simple words capture the essence of what a Drug Court does. ALL RISE describes how instead of imprisoning an addict, Drug Courts insert hope and support into the very lives of people who the traditional justice system says are hopeless.
“Whenever one person rises out of addiction and crime, we ALL RISE. When a child is reunited with clean and sober parents, we ALL RISE. When the intergenerational cycle of drug addiction in a family is broken and healing begins, we ALL RISE. Whether the charge is driving while impaired, theft, burglary or any number of other addiction-driven offenses, we ALL RISE when a Drug Court guides the offender past the chaos and wreckage and toward recovery.”
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Thank you for sharing this, Deona. I am so pleased to hear that the word is finally out that addiction is a brain disease not a choice. We have far too many people in jails and prisons who need help, not punishment.
Thank you Kate, I agree with your assessment. Also, I think for-profit prisons de-incentivize states and local governments to invest in prevention programs.
Thanks for a great article.
Re: “The biggest barrier for prevention programs aren’t funding, it’s for profit prisons. As long as sending people to prison is incentivized, there is no incentive to find solutions.”
How true and how absolutely disgusting.
40 years ago I set out to answer a simple question. What could possible make so many seemingly “nice” people behave so irrationally, cruelly, and inhumanely. The answer finally came to me when I started reading about dopamine-induced addictions to not only drugs, but gambling, food, sex, video games, and even tanning beds.
I seem to believe the only one who believes it, but I’m convinced that the most dangerous people use money, power, approval, and status to trigger the same dopamine junkies trigger with heroin. The difference is that heroin addicts get arrested while money/power/approval/status addicts get away with murder (and running for-profit prisons) because they control the institutions that determine the definition of what are and aren’t addictive behaviors.
Same dopamine, same self-deception, same denial, same disregard for the havoc their actions wreak on other people.
There is scientific data to suggest your assessment has merit.
Hi Deona and Lisa,
I appreciate you sharing the benefit of Drug Courts. It is clear to me that treatment is the answer, not imprisonment for drug possession. We all win in the end and I hope these policies are implemented on a wider scale in the near future. That is wonderful that Matthew Perry is promoting this cause. Thanks so much!
One of the things that I try to report on Social Work Helper is when celebrities use their personas to promote worthy causes. It really helps to alleviate attention to a population that may otherwise be invisible.