Prison Recidivism Rates

Posted on April 14, 2011 by townsend

• Study: Prisons failing to deter repeat criminals in 41 states, By Kevin Johnson, April 12, 2011, USA Today: “The number of inmates returning to state prisons within three years of release has remained steady for more than a decade, a strong indicator that prison systems are failing to deter criminals from re-offending, a new study has concluded. In one of the most comprehensive reports of its kind, the Pew Center on the States found that slightly more than four in 10 offenders return to prison within three years, a collective rate that has remained largely unchanged in years, despite huge increases in prison spending that now costs states $52 billion annually. National recidivism, or return, rates are holding steady even as state officials have launched programs to help prisoners re-enter society and as the recent financial crisis has forced states to cut their budgets and re-evaluate the types of offenders who should return to prison…”
• Study praises efforts in Missouri, Kansas to cut prison recidivism, By Mark Morris, April 12, 2011, Kansas City Star: “A new study on former prisoners who reoffend and return to prison gives Missouri high marks for a ‘dramatic’ decline in recidivism over the last six years. According to the Pew Center on the States, 46 percent of Missouri offenders released in fiscal year 2004 returned to prison within two years, for either a new crime or for a ‘technical’ violation of their parole or probation. However, that figure had dropped nearly 9 percentage points, to 37.5 percent, for offenders released in fiscal 2008, according to state figures…”
• Va. returning prisoners to jail at lower-than-average rate, study shows, By Michael S. Rosenwald, April 13, 2011, Washington Post: “Sixteen years after banning parole, Virginia has defied the nation’s unshakably high recidivism level, returning a lower rate of prisoners to incarceration than many other states, according to the first state-by-state comparison of recidivism. Although the state’s recidivism levels have edged up slightly since 2000, Virginia’s 28.3 percent recidivism rate for prisoners in the three years after their release in 2004 is well below the nation’s 43.3 percent rate during the same period, according to the Pew Center on the States study…”
• Four in 10 offenders released from prison return, survey finds, By Jessie Halladay, April 12, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Four in 10 offenders released from prisons across the nation are back behind bars within three years, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States, the first ever state-by-state survey on inmate recidivism. According to state corrections data collected by Pew, 43 percent of prisoners released in 2004 and 45 percent of those released in 1999 were reincarcerated within three years, despite falling crime rates and rising corrections budgets…”