Aaron Beck, the Father of Cognitive therapy, suggests that addictions stem from addicted individuals not having a biological disease but rather being in possession of negative and painful psychological ‘core beliefs’, which are often inaccessible to immediate consciousness without the support and guidance of a therapist. These painful ‘core beliefs’ tend to be short rigid statements such as ‘I am unlovable’ or ‘I am a failure’. When these beliefs rise to the surface a system of addictive beliefs are activated. The addicted individual will start to believe there will be significant benefits to using their substance of choice. For example, the individual may believe ‘I cannot cope with this situation, if I have a drink/use a drug I will cope better’. These beliefs result in increased drink/drug cravings. Once craving begins, an individual may start to engage in ‘permissive thinking’, such as “I’ll just have one drink tonight to help me through this. I can handle drinking just this once.” Following permissive thoughts, the likelihood of drink/drug seeking and consuming behavior is greatly increased and the addicted individual may begin to use.

Given the concept that addiction and addictive behaviors stems from these core beliefs, how has the current prison system perpetuates these beliefs? What are some policies that you suggest should be adopted by the criminal justice system to address the root of substance use and addiction? Include citations from the text.