Guide Prison: recidivism and the penal system

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With its prisons and jails now holding more than million inmates — roughly one In California, which has the nation's largest state prison system, with nearly . Rehabilitation programs reduce recidivism if they incorporate.
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The US, in particular, is a near all-encompassing case study of what happens in a place with long prison sentences.

Donald Trump's justice reform plan promises to cut costs, recidivism

In the US, the number of prisoners has quadrupled since the s — and now, as prison terms get longer, people are spending even more time in prison. Most prisoners are incarcerated for drug or violence-related offences. Today, the US leads the world with more than 2. He points back to the late s, a turbulent time in US history. The country was in the throes of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, which led to protests and riots. In turn, that led to unrest and fear among the population. Politicians capitalised on that anxiety.

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And they still do. From that period the US saw an absolute explosion in prison population : from , in to more than 1,, in The US also has some of the longest prison sentences in the world due to its cultural values including an extreme emphasis on personal responsibility, religious belief in good and evil, and the idea that a community has the moral imperative to stamp out bad deeds. Law bosses in the US have been pushing for harsher sentencing in an attempt to keep violence and drugs off the streets Credit: Getty Images. Other societies might contextualise crime as more situational.

So, are there alternatives to letting prisoners stew for decades? Norway shows some promising results. There, capital punishment was abolished in and life sentences in The maximum prison sentence is 21 years. But at Halden, cells and the commissary look like IKEA and Whole Foods, there are no barred windows or security cameras, and unarmed guards befriend the prisoners.

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Thomas Ugelvik, a criminology professor at the University of Oslo, says that these open prisons are cheaper, built on prisoner trust and, in some ways, may be tougher to do time in: more responsibility is expected of the prisoners. These Norwegian prison sentences help lead to rehabilitation, something not always seen in long prison sentences. Even more surprising perhaps is that the average prison sentence length in Norway is only eight months. When a judge hands out a prison sentence there are four main factors that go into the decision: retribution, rehabilitation, safety and deterrence Credit: Getty Images.


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Department of Education released an analysis which showed that over the course of three decades—from to —state and local spending on prisons and jails increased at three times the rate of funding for pre-K public education over the same years. Nationwide, the bulk of corrections spending goes toward housing the ever-growing prison population—a consequence of the rapidly expanding U. Rather than spending more to house the growing prison population and to fund excessive rates of incarceration, federal and state governments should focus instead on supporting rehabilitation and reducing recidivism.

According to a study by the U. Sentencing Commission USSC , nearly half of all individuals released from federal prisons are rearrested within eight years of their release, and around half of those rearrested are sent back to jail. The same study found that individuals younger than 21 who are released from federal prison are rearrested at the highest rates of any age group. Individuals who did not complete high school were rearrested at the highest rate— While incarcerated young adults and school-aged children are mo re likely to be rearrested , they also have a lot to gain from educational opportunities while in prison.

Roundtable: Prison - Punish or Rehabilitate

There is a logical argument for prison education: It is a cost-effective way to reduce crime and leads to long-term benefits across the entire U. In , the RAND Corporation produced a report that showed that individuals who participate in any type of educational program while in prison are 43 percent less likely to return to prison. In addition to reducing recidivism, education can improve outcomes from one generation to the next. Research shows that children with parents with college degrees are more likely to complete college, which can create social mobility for families. Prisons with college programs have less violence among incarcerated individuals, which creates a safer environment for both incarcerated individuals and prison staff.

The significant personal benefits of prison education include increased personal income, lower unemployment, greater political engagement and volunteerism, and improved health outcomes. Moreover, high recidivism—which is exacerbated by lower educational attainment—also reflects a failure of the criminal justice system at large. Formerly incarcerated individuals with low levels of education often find themselves without the financial resources or social support systems upon their release from prison and therefore are more vulnerable to committing criminal acts rather than becoming reintegrated into society.

In many states, exonerees do not have access to reentry services provided to parolees, although they are in need of the same support.


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The exonerated often suffer from PTSD, lack occupational training and skills, and cope with other issues related to the years they spent wrongfully incarcerated. To reduce recidivism, communities need to consider factors such as the threat of homelessness, mental health services, substance abuse programs, adequate health care, education and employment assistance, and family support. In addition, female inmates may need programs and services that are different from male inmates.

Unfortunately, however, California is one of many states which have stripped its prisons of rehabilitative programming over the years. As a result, inmates are often unable to participate in programs even if they are interested; wait times for valuable programs can be months or even years. The system is meant to deter those convicted from committing crimes again and rehabilitate them so that they can become productive members of society upon release. It is clear, though, that the system is flawed when two-thirds of those released ultimately return to prison.