Thesis Statement: Re-Entry Programs For Ex-Offenders

As of now, the cost of operating prisons is on the rise, along with the number of people in prison. Currently, taxpayers are spending between $20,000 and $25,000 annually on each individual prisoner (The Third Branch, Costs of Incarceration and Supervision). A proposal to reduce the cost of imprisonment is to put the prisoners to work. Within the next five years the prison population is expected to increase and is estimated to cost an additional 1.6 million dollars (The Economic Impact of Prison Labor). “If half of the prisoners could be employed by private enterprise during that time, their work would reduce taxpayer costs by almost $9 billion per year.” (The Economic Impact of Prison Labor)

In the United States, each day approximately 1,600 adults are released from state and federal penitentiaries to reintegrate back into the community (Gunnison & Helfgott, 2013). Reentry programs have been created all over the nation to help offenders successfully transition from prison into society. Offenders are confronted with numerous obstacles when attempting to reintegrate back into society. Ninety-five percent of offenders are released to reintegrate back into the community (Davis, Bahr, & Ward, 2013). Upon release, ex-offenders realize that despite the fact that they are no longer incarcerated, they face many restrictions. The restorative justice development rose to address the disappointment of the criminal justice framework to manage victims, offenders, and communities in an integrated way. A core focus of this development has been to expand the role of the community in advocating changes that will avert the issues and conditions related with crime and the demand for a criminal justice intervention (Hass & Saxon, 2012).

The bulk of the research was performed in the late 90s after many years had passed since the implementation of privatized prisons got a substantial boost in1988 (Austin, 2001). Much of the literature centers on the cost effectiveness of contracting out prisons. The main focus of the research is first and foremost, are they saving money by contracting out. Second, if they are saving money, is it enough money to justify the other problems that naturally accompany the for profit prisons model.

Considering the cost of new programs, budget shortfalls and cutbacks the state of Hawaii is experiencing at this time, we ask? What benefits would the state incur by immediately implementing an incarcerated offender reentry plan? Additionally, we ask? How would the immediate implementation of an incarcerated offender reentry plan affect a community’s economy and security? Perhaps, to effectively consider the impact of these questions I will need to determine why there is a need to immediately implement an incarcerated offender reentry plan. To do that, I will consider some statistical data: the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2008) tells us it has been estimated nationally 95% of all incarcerated people are eventually released into the

The study of recidivism amongst women in prison is important because most research focuses on the male population. The reasons for the “revolving door” phenomenon are different for women; therefore, their treatment should be more gender focused and specific to their needs. Judging by the rates at which women recidivate, you could assume that somewhere along the way the system has failed them. What role does drug use, motherhood, mental health, physical, sexual, and mental abuse play in the recidivism of female inmates?

Many criminals are sent to jail on a day to day basis. Once they have completed their sentence they are faced with many problems once they are “free”. These problems can be but are not limited to housing, employment, and substance abuse. The prisoner, once they are released, has a tendency to go back to their old ways and to continue the life of crime they were a part of prior to prison. To avoid this, while a prisoner is in prison, the staff creates a reentry program for the prisoner. The reentry program takes affect once the prisoner leaves prison. These programs are created within the community to help the offender from committing new crimes and to integrate them back into society. These programs are also created to help with

Private prisons do little to improve local economies. By all means, “the cost benefits of privatization have not materialized to the extent promised by the private sector. Although there are examples of cost savings, there are other examples in which such benefits have not been realized”(Austin 2001, 39). Furthermore, private prisons offer meager cost savings that stem from a reduction in labor-related cost (Austin 2001). On one hand, proponents of this industry say that private prisons are more cost-efficient. On the other hand, opponents say they are not cost-effective. Indeed, private prisons do save money in some respects. However, these savings come with hidden costs that make them irrelevant. Moreover, the proliferation of private prisons has had a negative effect on states and local governments. Rural areas in particular are drastically affected by private prisons. In fact, “increasing evidence suggests that by many measures prisons do not produce

Prisons are expensive facilities to operate. Each year, California prisons house more than 100,000 inmates (Graves, “Fewer State Prisoners, Higher Cost Per Inmate”). While the number of inmates has been steadily decreasing, spending per inmate has skyrocketed to about $60,000 from $33,000 in 1995 (Dean, “CA Spending Per Inmate Rising Faster Than Spending Per Child”). That is about six billion dollars spent on prisoners alone. The government is wasting more and more taxpayer money on keeping inmates inside the prisons. With about 58% of ex-convicts returning to prison within

America sends more of its citizens to prison than any other country in the world. The United States, though only five percent of the world’s population, incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. America is supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the incarcerated. About 6,937,600 offenders were under the supervision of adult correctional systems at year end 2012. Around two-thirds of the prison population which is released annually (637,400) will recidivate within the first three years of release (Glaze, 2013). The prisoner re-entry programs that are currently in place are clearly ineffective and insufficient. A reallocation of the budget is the first step towards fixing our re-entry programs. Once the budget is under control, the government needs to have a complete overhaul of system. There are many prisoner re-entry programs that have shown promise which means there is already a blueprint to success available.

The opposing view makes a good argument stating that the private prisons save a considerable amount of money by leveraging price controls for

At first, constructing prisons sounded like an excellent way to employ local residents in the 1970s economic recession when the country was experiencing the budgetary nightmares of stagflation for the first time in history. The building of prisons did create jobs that did not require any kind of special training in rural and mostly white communities. Private companies that partnered with the government to build, maintain, and supply prisons with necessities were in a very lucrative line of business. This allowed companies to grow into massive profit earners such as the Corrections Corporation of America, who eventually grew to report 1.4 billion dollars of profit in 2007. Companies such as this were receiving the economic benefits of mass incarceration while a larger amount of the population was harmed by it. Problems arose in several districts when a community was encouraged to build prisons with the promise of receiving well paying jobs in return. Outsiders instead took the majority of jobs at the newly completed prisons which angered local residents who would later come to regret the building of a prison in their community. Not only did some local prisons not provide the amount of work promised but in some instances they stole other jobs by allowing local businesses to use the inmate

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

Furthermore, when programs are educated without any barriers studies have shown that the federal and state prisons save a little less

Before the start of class, I never really took time to research our prison system. Most of the information I received about the system came from the news or from my parents. Because of them, I knew that the system had changed to more of a business model. But it wasn’t until I took

With the highest incarcerated rate in the world, does the United States prison systems offer quality rehabilitation or just punishment? According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there was approximately 706 prisoners per 100,000 residents, or about 2.2 million prisoners in 2012 and within 3 years, almost 6 out of 10 released inmates will be rearrested and half will be back in prison. According to data from www.gpo.gov , the vast majority of prisoners are not rehabilitated. Two-thirds of released prisoners are re-arrested and one-half are re-incarcerated within three years of release from prison. Rates of recidivism rise to approximately 75%-85% of released prisoners are likely to be re-arrested within a decade of release. Successful rehabilitation is vital when releasing an inmate into the community as it produces a significant reduction in criminal recidivism. The purpose of incarceration is to protect the public and punish as well as rehabilitate the criminal. It is designed to change an inmate's view of life and alter their future behavior when re-entering society. Prisons offer education, labor, and other rehabilitation sources to inmates, so why is the recidivism rate so high with these programs in place?