Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry program keeping more parolees out, audit finds, By Dawson Bell, February 7, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “A Michigan prison program to aid parolees’ transition to life on the outside has produced a ‘notable’ reduction in recidivism in recent years, according to an audit released today. The report by the Office of the Auditor General found that parolees enrolled in the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative were significantly less likely to end up back behind bars. The reduction was even more pronounced among parolees who had a history of parole failure before widespread use of the program in 2007, the report said…”
Tag: Prisoner re-entry
Prison Recidivism Rates – Pennsylvania
Half of Pa.’s inmates are rejailed within 5 years, By Mensah M. Dean, July 5, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “When Antoine Stone found work at a grocery store this spring, he took a giant step toward self-sufficiency while inching away from ever again being a financial burden on Pennsylvania taxpayers. The well-spoken single father of two daughters didn’t just have to overcome the ravages of the recession to land his first real job in years. For Stone, 38, the hurdles to finding work were much higher, and of his own making. The West Philadelphia native estimates that in his younger years he racked up eight to 10 arrests, serving short stints in city jails. But it was a parole violation stemming from a drug-possession conviction from nearly 10 years ago that landed him in state prison for the first time, from January 2006 to February 2008. As a convicted felon, Stone needed more help than the average job seeker, and found it at the nonprofit Pennsylvania Prison Society, which in a 12-week program taught him life skills, how to write a resumé, how to dress for success and how to be a better father. The vast majority of the inmates released from Pennsylvania’s prisons don’t go through such programs – and it shows…”
Prison Recidivism Rates
- 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…”