The current work built on prior research showing aspects of romantic relationships, including relationship quality and partner substance use, influence individual risk for substance use during emerging adulthood. Analyses were based on a sample of males from the Pathways to Desistance Project (PDP) data. Romantic relationships were quantified with an aggregate measure of relationship quality and specific measures of relationship satisfaction, monitoring, and partner antisocial behavior. With a focus on emerging adulthood, the current work was centered on Waves 8 and 9 of the PDP data. Regression models tested the association between the relationship measures and alcohol intoxication, marijuana use, and hard drug use in the past year. Models considered both contemporaneous and longitudinal effects. Across the aspects of romantic relationships, monitoring and partner antisocial behavior had the most consistent association with substance use. The association between monitoring and substance use was strongest when longitudinal effects were tested among those in a relationship at both Waves 8 and 9. Peer antisocial behavior and prior substance use were also associated with substance use. Results show that romantic relationships have an important influence on substance use within a criminal justice involved sample.

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Recent media portrayals of methamphetamine (meth) suggest that its use is relatively rare among Black drug users. Our aim with the current research is to explore the reasons why Black women stimulant users abstain from using meth. We rely on semi-structured interviews with 33 Black women whose drug of choice was cocaine and who had never or rarely used meth. These women said that they did not use meth because they had limited access to the drug, feared the chemicals used in production, disliked the immediate sensations, and feared the long-term consequences on their health. The limited access to meth led these stimulant users to rely on stereotypes of meth that the drug is made from toxic materials and that it causes rapid deterioration in users’ appearances. We argue that these factors contribute to meth use being stigmatized in Black communities, thereby acting as a protective factor in discouraging use among Black stimulant users.

We examine in this article the legal status of foreign prisoners in the United States in general, and in the State of Texas in particular. With few exceptions, the law does not distinguish between domestic and foreign prisoners, granting similar rights and obligations to each. We conclude this article by examining current controversies in the treatment of foreign prisoners in the United States. Issues examined include dietary restrictions, use of languages other than English, length of hair, and mandatory and indefinite detention of aliens.

Fifteen years ago, Jensen, Gerber, and Mosher drew attention to the societal costs of the U.S. war on drugs. They argued that while criminologists had focused on the impact of this war on the U.S. criminal justice system, other impacts had been under-researched. Whereas some research along these lines has been done that we review here briefly, some of the "objective" conditions of the war on drugs have changed in the intervening years. The primary aim of the current article is to update these conditions. In brief, we have witnessed progress at the U.S. state level in terms of adverse social consequences of the war on drugs, but a significant recent regress at the federal level. Among others, there are significant new restrictions to various federal programs, often disproportionately so for members of racial minorities.