The Influence Of Recidivism

The data from the study demonstrated that therapeutic community theory substance abuse treatment in a correctional facility was, “Effective in reducing the recidivism and that the time spent in treatment was positively related to greater periods between re-arrest and to a greater probability of positive outcomes. (Wexler, and Williams, 1986, Wexler, Falkin, and Lipton, 1990)

Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence, is a common problem. As a result, the criminal justice adapted to demands, especially from feminists, who bemoaned the poor response of police, and in turn, the justice system by instituting mandatory arrests. However, mandatory arrests have proven that just like protection or restraining orders, they are not effective in deterring domestic violence (Davis, 2008). Similarly, the arrests do not have a substantial effect on recidivism and create undue procedural complications for the criminal system (Zelcer, 2014). On the contrary, proponents of the approach, argue that it has a deterrent effect on the perpetrators and that it can even protect offer immediate protection for the victims (Clark, 2010). Nonetheless, using statistical evidence and arguments from scholarly sources, this position paper will expose the inefficiencies and constitutional inconsistencies that make mandatory arrests harmful for the batterer, victim, and the criminal justice system.

Recidivism is such a significant problem here in New Mexico. Many tend to throw it off and label it “just” a prison problem. But in all reality and factuality it’s a whole lot more than that; it’s a societal problem that affects our whole community, it affects our state as a whole. Recidivism is the act of reoffending or falling back into criminal behavior after one has been incarcerated and released. Recidivism tends to more common, than uncommon here in New Mexico.

There are many factors that would cause someone who lives with mental illness or substance abuse to return to prison. One of the causes on recidivism is the lack of health care. For someone who lives with a mental illness or have substance abuse problems the number one issue is not being able to get medicine or health care to help them achieve self-care. Without it, they are more likely to commit a crime to either support their habit or commit a crime because they are not fully aware of what they are doing. Many inmates who live with serious mental illness leave prisons without health insurance, which decreases their access to health care and therefore places them at risk of relapse and re-arrest (Wenzlow, Ireys, Mann Irvin, and Teich, 2011). Another reason is childhood trauma. There are plenty of prisoners that suffered childhood trauma, whether if it’s sexual abuse, physical abuse or neglect. These traumas can affect a child mentality until the child is an adult. Causing many mental problems including substance abuse or mental illness. According to Messina & Grella, this is the key connection between mental health and

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).

Just as the number of people in prison grows, so too does the number of people leaving prison. Research shows that 95 percent of all prisoners in the United States are released at some point (Katel 2009). The Department of Justice reports that more than 600,000 prisoners are released each year (John Oliver 2015). This means that hundreds of thousands of people reenter society and are expected to have learned from their time behind bars. Unfortunately, most of these people released back into society are not properly prepared. As a result, they end up back in prison.

There are many interesting topics in Criminal Justice that can be discussed and are relatable to my experience at the Lorain/Medina Community Based Correctional Facility, but I thought that perhaps one of the most interesting ones to look at is recidivism in the correctional system. It is also a commonality in other aspects of the criminal justice system. I chose to research the topic of recidivism for many reasons, one of them is that it relates to my experience because many of the residents I interacted with this summer had been involved with the system more than one time and in fact many of them have been through the L/M CBCF’s program multiple times. One of the females who is currently going through the program had been to the facility five times prior to this one and many of the males have been through the program at least twice. Many of them also talk about not being able to stop themselves from relapsing once they are released from the facility and being through a lot of other rehabilitation and recovery centers. After this discovery I wanted to explore and research more about recidivism and why it is a common occurrence for most criminal offenders and what can be done about it. In order to do this I searched a lot of online databases’ and examined quite a few academic journals, articles and other scholarly documents and websites on the topic. I tried to find information on the success rate of Community Corrections versus other forms of corrections, how recidivism

Recidivism refers to the situation when a person who has received previous punishment for a crime relapses and continues to commit crimes. Recidivism is an important concept to monitor because it shows the effectiveness of our prison and criminal justice systems. According to the NIJ within three years following release from prison, two thirds of the over 400,000 prisoners studied were rearrested, and that number increase to three quarters within five years (“Recidivism”, 2014). More than half of the studied prisoners were arrested again by the end of the first year following their release. Clearly, if there is such a high rate of recidivism and a low rate of deterrence, something is wrong with the way we punish criminals if they just go out

Recidivism is a relapse into criminal activity and is usually measured by the return of a former prisoner to prison a new offense. Recidivism rates reflect the extent to which prisoners correctional programs and the role they play in the reintegration of prisoners into society liberated rehabilitated. It is estimated that the recidivism rate in the US in about two thirds, in other words two thirds of released prisoners will be re-incarcerated within three years.

Ardino, Milani and Di Blasio assess perpetual negative thinking and dysphoria in relation to violent criminal recidivism. In their initial research, they state that continuous negative thinking or ‘rumination’ is said to impair problem-solving and erode healthy information processing (Ardino, Milani, Di Blasio, 2013, p. 2). In offender populations, where individuals have the length of their sentence to reflect on their crime(s), this can increase the frequency and depth with which offenders experience negative emotions and deter prosocial responses such as empathy, which can have implications for reintegration and lead to experiences of social alienation. They found that the experience of incarceration, in particular, facilitates negative perceptions

To discuss the findings on juvenile and adult recidivism, 20-literature review articles were used. Out of the 20 articles found, many did not report findings on implementation and impact of reentry programs on reducing juvenile recidivism. In 2004-2011 data obtained from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) was used in this study. These programs were comprised of 16 out of 89 programs located in Colorado, Maryland, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Maine, Missouri, Indiana, `Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Washington and South Carolina. Arrest data acquired from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) were used to conduct a treatment outcome evaluation for both SVORI and non-SVORI respondents consisting of in person,

Routinely in the news are stories of ex-convicts being arrested again, and sometimes for even more serious crimes than they had been convicted for. Currently he overall recidivism rate for Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) stands at 21 % (Oklahoma Department of Corrections, 2014). The recidivism rate is calculated on the number of Oklahoma Inmates that reenter the corrections department within three years of release. Faith based programs ministering within the prison walls, and partnering with local churches to aid the convicted with reentry do make a difference (Dodson, Cabage, & Klenowski, 2011). The desired effect is not only a change in the life of the offender, but for their children, and in turn can reduce crime in the community.

There will likely be a number of instances throughout this book when you feel we are nitpicking or being overly critical of correction’s staff. However, what is important to keep in mind is that what we are ultimately saying is that it is the cumulative effect of a substantial number of factors that leads to the result, not any one thing. A noxious culture is an insidious creature: It inflicts its harm by imperceptible degrees. Certainly it can be argued that any one instance is no big deal. But isolating each individual thing is the kind of narrow-minded, concrete approach that is contributing to the dismal rate of recidivism.

The cognitive and behavioural approach is an effective way in dealing with the reduction of recidivism. This approach is based on the social learning theory, which believes that offenders are products of their environments. Meaning that their surroundings have taught them to learn improper ways of behaving. Behaviour therapy is set on the principles of conditioned learning. Some of the methods that are used specially are relaxation training, response prevention, and thought stopping. One of the other methods also used is social skill, which deals solely on the problem of people dealing with a social encounter. This method places inmates in a program where they learn to develop a newfound knowledge on how to interact with others. They may use

The study, “Recidivism among Participants of a Reentry Program for Prisoners Released without Supervision” (2012) by Wikoff, Linhorst, and Morani, discusses if reentry programs with direct financial assistance leads to a lower recidivism rate and predictors of recidivism among offenders who have maxed-out. In the study, there were 122 inmates that were a part of the Project Re-Connect (PRC) group and 158 offenders were part of the nonparticipation group. The participants were monitor to see if they would get convicted of other charges after initially being released. While the article was overall well-done, there are some aspects that could be changed and/or interpreted more.