Fellas - Addiction and Mental Illness

The book Fellas: Overcoming Prison and Addiction by Charles M. Terry describes the story of twenty men, who in their past were addicted to heroin as well as other drugs and spend different amounts of time in prison. While reading the book, I was able to see the relationship between some the men’s stories and the content of the Addiction and Mental Illness in Criminal Justice as well the Social Deviance course.

Throughout the reading of the book, I was amazed about my impression of the fellas. I didn’t see any of them as bad men. Although some of their stories were rough and those men have done and experienced many crazy and mad things, I haven’t seen them as criminals but rather as normal human beings. Maybe it was intended by the author to project the men in a somehow positive, so when they read the book, they then can see a successful ending of their addiction and a beginning of a new life. My positive impression of the men has something to do with the labeling theory and the words being used to describe a person. As I have learned in the Social Deviance course, labeling someone as deviant (in this case as criminal, addict, etc.) or by using positive words, the person will eventually begin to live up to this label. Being seen as a recovering addict or a dopefiend (p. 109), the fellas may have seen a victory in their transformation from using drugs to becoming clean. They might have even better picture of themselves than before.

I have also seen the labeling theory applying in another part of the book. On page 13, the author described a girl, who was using drugs during high school while still being an “A” student (p. 13). She has realized though that many people who were using drugs were heading in a direction that she didn’t want to go, so she quit taking drugs without any problems. Because she has never been caught doing drugs, was not disciplined or has seen herself as an addict nor has been labeled as one, she was able to avoid becoming a professional drug...