Recidivism is the act of an individual being rearrested, or returning to prison after serving time for a crime after their initial release. Unfortunately, this is a term that has become way too familiar within American prison systems. This topic has been slightly touched on in previous posts, but deserves a moment of it’s own in today’s text. The repetition of criminal behavior after serving sentences previously is what continues to overcrowd prisons throughout the United States.
For a country that continues to blow billions of dollars into their police systems, the deterrence rates that comes with heavy incarceration and the current punishment systems are not doing enough to benefit the society. Perhaps, instead of putting so much time and money into putting people into jails, we should refocus our attention on the re-entry into society after sentences. An article labeled ‘A Second Chance’ by the U.S. Department of Justice, states that over two-thirds of convicts face another charge under three years of the end of their initial sentence. The article goes further to state that the incredibly high rates of recidivism are due to the incredibly low levels of available resources that aid in establishing healthy lives after leaving prisons, and I would have to agree.
Keep in mind, not all communities are as negligent in the area of rehabilitation, as we have discussed on the previous post, but not enough are making resources known and accessible to inmates. Inmates may just not have enough support as they face such a large transition from leaving life behind bars and stepping back into total freedom. For some, this change is simply too much and they would rather find themselves back into the comfort of the familiar feel that prison had formed for them.
RED (Rehabilitation Enables Dreams), is a source that has made many appearances in the efforts of decreasing recidivism, increasing resources for rehabilitation, and has spoken out in general about mass incarceration in the United States. They aim to fight increasing crime rates by attacking the source, rather than relying solely on deterrence through incarceration.
On a larger scale, The U.S. Department of Justice claims to be making reforms in efforts to attack recidivism by targeting ‘behavioral issues that result in criminality.’ On their site you can find the most recent reforms and their newest efforts on declining the numbers of re-arrests in attempts to lower the overall crime rates in America.
The incarceration rates in the US compared to other countries is ridiculously high. When so much money is spent keeping people in jail and barely any of it is used to keep people out, it really makes you wonder how this system has continued to this day.
I was shocked to learn that two-thirds of convicts face another charge. Before reading this post, I knew that recidivism was an issue in the United States, but I did not realize just how big of a problem it is. I think that we should be putting more money into rehabilitation and less into police systems.