Recidivism Issues

“Recidivism “is as to relapse in behavior; typically, in criminal behavior. Department of Justice Measurements of recidivism include new arrest, new convictions, returning to prison with a new sentence or reincarceration for rest of sentence. Astonishingly enough, with in a 5-year period in 2010 ,70% of offenders that were released had been reincarcerated, due to rescinding back to the life of crime.

The state of Florida has passed a new law pertaining to the Juvenile Justice System which gives the officer that makes first contact with the youth offender. The officer may, if the youth has no prior criminal acts and the offense is a non-violent or non-drug related offense, just file a civil citation. This happens to be a new program designed to address a youth’s behavior at their first encounter with the Juvenile Justice system providing an alternative to being arrested. Vital to the Department of Juvenile Justice’s effort, civil citations will help reform the juvenile justice system by handing first-time misdemeanor offenders the chance to participate in intervention programs at the earliest stage of delinquency. Civil citations saves

An inherent marker of this case’s problematic nature can be demonstrated within the representation of the defendants by prosecution. The defendants had their socioeconomic status and previous interactions with the ‘justice’ system flagrantly used against them. They were characterized as those people, the others, the ones who commit crimes – preying on implicit jury biases*1. Their background and the neighborhood they grew up in was used as an excuse to typecast them for a role in prison. It seems obvious that in any case, the class roles of any participants should be irrelevant unless their crime explicitly involves the matter. Instead, theirs were touted as evidence. Additionally, the defendants’ previous transgressions were brought up in an attempt to further incriminate them. Though recidivism rates are essentially astronomical in the United States, this argument is beyond irrelevant and at its heart a fallacy that should make this information irrelevant. (If the defendants had interacted with the justice system before and they were convicted of anything, then the system has failed them. It’s clearly ineffective given that in the eyes of the state the defendants were far from rehabilitated).

In conclusion Many things need to change to lower America's recidivism rate, like budget readjustments, education programs, and improved psychiatric health care. Without many reforms in these critical areas and better distribution of true information to our free citizens who actually have a voice on this controversy America will never see a lower recidivism rate or a low prison population. For the sake of safety for our citizens and improving the quality of life for those offenders who want change within, America must get rid of the nothing work doctrine, and open their minds to second chances and the idea that people can change.

A long-term study conducted by Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the average five-year recidivism rates of 404,638 prisoners released in 2005 is 76.6% among thirty states in America (Matthew, Alexia, & Howard, 2014, p. 1). In other words, most of the released prisoners did not escape the cycle of recidivism and were sent back to the prison after time. This indicates that the present American justice system, which focuses on punishment as Benson (2003) noted, fails to rehabilitate prisoners efficiently and is far from achieving the goal of reducing crime rates (p. 46). What is more, the recidivism of prisoners is becoming a great plague of society, because it not only imposes a threat to public safety but also places an enormous

America has a problem: With over 2.3 million people incarcerated, we haven’t done enough to prevent reoffending. According to the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), nearly seven in ten people who are formerly incarcerated will commit a new crime. Additionally, every five in ten people will be behind prison bars within three years. Because 95 percent of those incarcerated will eventually rejoin society, it’s imperative we develop a solution to keep our communities safe and allow prisoners to reach their full potential.

The strain on taxpayer’s money to sustain an inmate has been the source of many debates in recent years. Per the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, on average, it costs 31,286 dollars to house one inmate. Some Maximum-Security prisons cost as much as 60,000 dollars an inmate and goes on to name that the most expensive prison, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, costs approximately 90,000 dollars a year (The Law Dictionary, 2012). While the thought of alleviating the cost associated with jails and prisons, is an unreachable goal, the goal of lowering the number of recidivist and in turn lowering overcrowding is attainable. Prison programs that do their best to rehabilitate offenders often see a cycle of returners coming through their doors in a matter of years or even months. Once the rehabilitated offenders are released, they often find themselves without the proper tools to find jobs or housing and resort to illegal activity to support themselves; thus, landing them back in jail or prison. The advantage of allowing offenders to partake in reentry programs is the wide range of services that can be beneficial to their reentry back into society and it explains the importance of having reentry programs in corrections. Having quality programs for offenders such as educational programs, work release programs, and drug abuse programs. A proper program geared towards reducing recidivism should appease the many issues an offender may have which requires correctional funds to be allocated to reentry

Reintegration back to society for ex-convicts involves numerous hurdles to overcome. Each day, roughly 1,600 prisoners are released (Petersilia, 2003 pg3) back to their communities. Easier said than done, these individuals have to continue where they left off. The issues that come along with this all relate to how these individuals will succeed at their second chance. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2011-2012 an estimated 40 percent of federal and state inmates reported having chronic medical conditions (Berzosky, 2015). Other research suggests that 75 percent of inmates are illiterate at the 12th-grade level (Rosario, 2010). Medical conditions, lack of social skills, lack of work-training, and lack of education, along with a criminal history is a recipe for hardship that ex-convicts face; often leading to recidivism.

As a general public we pay monetary expenses as well as the very way of jail, regardless of how compassionate society endeavors to make it, delivers a situation that is unavoidably crushing to its occupants. Numerous Americans have faith in our present jail framework, furthermore trust that it is a compelling type of discipline for the criminal. Some would say that culprits could live good, enlightened lives in jail then graduate to better than average, acculturated lives in the free world. My inquiry to these individuals is; in what manner can hoodlums live edified lives in a situation that just offers turmoil and mellow types of political agitation? It is understood what goes ahead in secret in jail; appalling outrages that make the head

Recidivism. We have heard that word over and over and yet we seem to find ourselves with the same problem, the overcrowding of jails, or even individuals reoffending. In many ways, people believe that punishing for a crime does not work and one of the most effective ways to prevent individuals from re-offending is simple, rehabilitation. Throughout the following essay we will be discussing a particular drug offense and consider a type of rehabilitation program in which would best serve that particular offender.

The author Wayne Morrow of “Predicting recidivism in offenders on probation: A comparison of two methods, actuarial appraisal vs. psychological testing”, focused on an experiment that showed how a probation officer was able to classify probationers into a specific risk and view their needs. This author referenced a lot of researchers that have researched how to effectively identify an offenders risk by conducting a risk assessment (Morrow, 2013). The role of risk assessment is to be able to determine which type of offender will most likely re-offend (Morrow, 2013). Probation agencies are able to determine the type of supervision an offender should be placed on due to their risk assessment results (Morrow, 2013). According to the study of Andrews

The solutions to these concerns are not straightforward but there are plausible remedies to the issues presented. In order to address the issue brought forth regarding public safety, the statistics regarding criminal recidivism need to be analyzed. In 2014 the Bureau of Justice Statistics released data compiled from a study that tracked inmates released from prison in 2005 over a length of five years to see if any of them had relapsed back into a life of crime by 2010. According to the data, “68 percent of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of their release from prison, and 77 percent were arrested within five years” . These facts are overwhelming and seem to hint at an issue within

Samples-Martison would conduct a six-month 231 study from books of literature on rehabilitation and what works in reducing recidivism from the year 1945 until 1967.

While investigating the correlation between the way in which the United States prison system treats its prisoners, and the amount of people who return to prison after release, it became apparent to me that there must be better ways to punish people for the crime they committed while

never implemented as intended. Although the contours of the correctional system changed—the juvenile court, indeterminate sentencing, probation, parole, and discretion became integral features of this system—the resources and knowledge needed to provide effective treatment to offenders were in short supply. Cullen and Gendreau (2000).