Essay On Recidivism

Ever since the first prison opened in the United States in 1790, incarceration has been the center of the nation's criminal justice system. Over this 200 year period many creative alternatives to incarceration have been tried, and many at a much lower cost than imprisonment. It wasn't until the late 1980's when our criminal justice systems across the country began experiencing a problem with overcrowding of facilities. This problem forced lawmakers to develop new options for sentencing criminal offenders. Unlike jail or prisons, which create an expensive cycle of violence and crime, these alternatives actually prevent violence and strengthen communities.

Youth choosing to engage in criminal behavior is not a new phenomenon. Youth who choose to do this repeatedly are referred to as re-offenders. The age and the sex of the offender also contribute to the recidivism rate and the types of consequences. Other contributing factors in recidivism include the relationship the youth has with peers or parents, whether they abuse substances, and the racial origins of the young offender. There is a wide spectrum of consequences and different ways in which treatment attempts to aid re-offenders. Re-offenders commit various crimes and differ greatly in their response to treatment.

Correctional treatment programs have long been thought not to be effective in lowering the recidivism among criminals; Martinson (1979). Researchers have done countless studies and surveys only to find out that many of these studies and programs work and nearly the same number of programs do not work, depending on what component was or was not a part of the studies. Knowing that all programs does not work for all criminals is a no brainer, however, finding a good mixture of what does work and for what percentage of criminals is a beginning to duplicate that program with a few minor adjustments in the programs.

The policy options that will be discussed are establishing efficient and beneficial rehabilitation systems in prisons, establishing educational systems in prisons, eliminating private prisons, and reducing mandatory sentencing laws. These are a few of the many ideas and solutions that the United States can take in order to reduce its high incarceration rate.

Most studies vary on the rate of recidivism amongst releasees. This is mainly due to where the studies take place, the sample size of the study, and when the study takes place. A popular study often referenced to by sociologists and criminologists when studying recidivism rates is one that was conducted in 1994 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The sample of this study consisted on over 272,000 released individuals in 15 states. According to the study, over 67% of the individuals were rearrested, 47% were re-convicted, and 25% were re-sentenced to prison for the new crime (Langan & Levin, 1994). James Henslin breaks the study of re-entry into the correctional system down into even more by stating that 40-45% individuals relapse within one year of release, while 66-68% relapse within three years of release (Henslin). The image below illustrates the recidivism rates in United States prisons by each crime.

Over-incarceration in the United States is an issue that is quite known, but there hasn't been much done in order to reduce the amount of inmates incarcerated. In specific, Dade County Jail located in Miami has received criticism regarding the over population of inmates in their facility. So much that processing procedure of new inmates was switched from Dade County Jail to Turner Guilford Knight. " The main jail, across from Miami-Dade criminal courthouse, was built in 1959 and never intended to hold such a large population. Inmates sued for overcrowding in the 1970s — a federal judge later declared the conditions unconstitutional." (Ovalle, "Notorious Miami-Dade psychiatric jail ward finally shuttered", 2015) During its operating times, Dade

In this essay, I shall be focusing on the whether or Prisons rehabilitate offenders. I will

I believe that most of the outcomes of prisonized offenders are negative. These men inmates have been locked up for years some even decades and have adapted to the prison way of life. Manny of these prisoners have grown accustomed to the prison lifestyle such as bartering , prison lingo and even have formed bonds between other inmates. Some of these inmates have no friends or family in the outside world or don't have a place to live once they are released. Some of the inmates are victims of sexual assault and violence that they have encountered while serving their time. Many of these criminal have been locked up for so long they do not remember how to be a functioning member of society. It is extremely hard for prisoners to serve 20 plus years and then get released without being mentally prepared.

There is no single exact reason for the cause of recidivism and why prisoners return to a life of crime living with imprisonment, but some of the reasons do include the following: lack of socialization, inability to reintegrate into society after returning from prison, antisocial attitudes, association with other criminals, lack of support, substance abuse, neglect or abuse of parents of guardians.( http://study.com/academy/lesson/recidivism-definition-causes-prevention.html). According to The Daily Beast “One of the biggest factors is age. The prison population is getting older,” (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/22/america-s-recidivism-nightmare.html) In a recent

Recidivism is the result of a former prisoner relapsing into criminal activity and returning to prison for a new offense. It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of

of the time. They offer their insight on effective corrections and individualizing treatments based on predictors for crime and behavioral knowledge, as well as conclude that recidivism is reduced by rehabilitation.

The United States justice system can be described as a cycle, where people enter the prison system, are released, and upon failure to integrate into society soon find themselves back behind bars. Although the means in which the cycle is perpetuated can be argued, the rate of re-offenders is constantly trying to be reduced. One term used to define this type of convict is recidivism, which is the repeat criminal action of a convicted inmate. Recidivism is fastly becoming a issue in the United States as it has been shown that 70% of convicted offenders have been reconvicted within three years of release (Esperian, 2010, p. 322). As crime of any background can be detrimental to society, this high rate of reentry into the justice system has stimulated

It is common knowledge that the American prison system has grown exponentially in the last few decades. The prison population within the last forty years has risen by two million inmates. Multiple factors such as overcrowding and cost cutting have also decreased the quality of life within prisons by an order of magnitude. With this rising statistic, it becomes increasingly urgent to understand the effect of incarceration on our prisoners and whether the reformation process is actually doing more harm than good.

Prisons and jails are both referred to as incarcerations. A prison is where people get physically confined and lack personal freedom, and also those awaiting trails and those serving a term exceeding one year are confined here, while a jail is where inmates are housed prior to their trials on local level and those serving a term of one year or less. The society is protected from the offenders by them being confined in prisons, where their behaviors can be monitored, or they can be placed in community-based facilities which are secured and also offer an opportunity for the prisoners to acquire skills and knowledge through work related activities. The jail on the other hand serves the purpose of detaining law offenders of which they shall

By the lack of rehabilitation programs in the state and federal prison systems, the chances of convicts releasing and returning back to prison increases rapidly. The lack of rehabilitation is one of the most leading causes to an offenders relapse or to a new crime that will be committed within 3 years from the offender’s release. A rehabilitation program