Prisoners and Recidivism – How to Reduce It

Prisoners and Recidivism – How to Reduce It

Abstract

This paper touches on the case of prisoners, the rising prospects of committing an offense, and how to prevent the escalation of this issue. The general focus will be on the provision of reliable literature on the reintegration of these persons. Attention will be paid to the historical perspective of these occurrences and their progress over time, as well as their recidivism. The paper will also touch on various ways to reduce the likelihood of the re-emergence of this issue in society. Various ways to ameliorate this escalating problem will include using and expanding drug courts, escalating, being of assistance to offenders in securing living-wage employment, preventing fund cuts in prisons, and providing a connection of stable housing to the returning prisoners. With this in mind, it suffices to maintain that while the recurrence of crimes from past offenders has increased, the problem can be solved.

Prisoners and Recidivism: How to Reduce It

It is vital to understand that when we pay a closer look into the criminal justice system in the United States, for instance, it is essentially onerous to find a specific moment responsible for negatively affecting prisoners and increasing the chances of recidivism prominently. However, a deeper look at the recent past in American history can provide us with reasons for recidivism today, which proves that this occurrence did not start recently.

In colonial America, numerous decisions were made that have repercussions down to modern-day society. The decisions that were made were either well-intentioned or downright nefarious. Still, however, the reverberations were the same.  It started from designing the jails to the adoption of corporal punishment and its values, which were a common practice in Europe. Another instance is the use of prisons to reinstate slavery in a more legal context. During the American colonial period, incarceration was primarily about punishment and pain administering, which have characteristics that shape policies today. Rather than denying freedom and the confining of criminals over extended periods, crime was punished by flogging, hangings, severe cases of public humiliation, and even mutilations. The weaknesses in this are that criminals who made it through the humiliations and punishments were most likely to re-offend with much more clever tricks or move to another state and proceed with their crimes. The judicial system was more interested in the punishment of individuals, which inevitably led to militancy and cases of re-offending. The shift to confinement from corporal punishment gained widespread popularity after Cesare Beccaria published his book On Crimes and Punishment that insisted on confining a convict for extended periods of time in severity to their crimes. After the war, punishment gradually shifted to curtailing freedom instead of humiliating offenders publicly or meting corporal punishment.

Nonetheless, the shift toward the isolation of prisoners was aimed at reforming prisoners. In this case, prisoners were prevented from interacting with anyone else apart from the preachers. However, without a doubt, this did have negative effects on the prisoners instead of bolstering positive behavior due to the extended periods of isolation. Isolation for long periods of time led to negative psychological consequences and had little advantage to the noble cause of rehabilitating prisoners, who inevitably turned out for the worse when they were released from jail and were most likely to commit more nefarious crimes. It was also after the Civil War that recidivism increased and especially after the record-keeping notion that it was discovered that recidivism was becoming more palpable, and there was a need for reform that advocated for education in the prison system. Today, recidivism is still on the rise. However, ensuring that enough funds are allocated to prisons to bolster the rehabilitation of the prisoners to make them become better citizens and curtail the chances of recidivism.

To begin with, when funds are provided to fund programs that help prisoners, such as treatment of substance abuse, educational programs, and even vocational training, they all serve to help convicts to keep their jobs, make their lives better, and prevent primarily cases of recidivism. However, cuts on the funds by the States that will lead to the closure of substance abuse programs and many others will, without a shadow of a doubt, increase the chances of recidivism. Government officials intend to cut two-hundred-fifty million annually from the rehabilitation services. According to Rothfeld (2009), “…Officials plan to chop $250 million a year from rehabilitation services, more than 40% of what the state now devotes to them and a quarter of the $1 billion it is slicing from its prison system.” In this case, prisoners would face the problem of reintegration back into society.

Also, being of assistance to offenders in securing living-wage employment is an important step in ensuring that prisoners do not engage in more crimes after jail term. A study found out that shortly after being released from prison, life, as is often the case, is difficult for ex-convicts because they have problems with housing, medical care, and employment. The study found out that a failure in any of the three cases, the ex-convict would most likely relapse back to crime. A case was reported of an offender who had no housing, and during winter, he would commit a crime and intentionally get arrested to secure himself hot meals and a bed to sleep in (Heroux, 2011). With this in mind, it suffices to maintain that they are less likely to re-offend by helping offenders get the three highlighted aspects.

Still, the usage of drug treatment courts that entail judicial supervision and substance abuse treatment have been tested and are efficacious in combating drug use and crime. The DTCs (Drug Treatment Courts) are effective in handling recidivism. In a recent study, the researcher compared the recidivism rate for the participants in drug courts and matched them on the basis of age, gender, criminal history, and ethnicity. The finding was that there was curtailed recidivism for the DTC compared to the non-DTC, which was more prominent in women, the elderly, minorities, and persons with more grave criminal records (Brown, 2011).

Lastly, encouraging restorative justice programs has been tested to be efficacious. In this case, juvenile offenders who are most likely to rejoin the gangs that they were involved in prior to their arrest are helped to make contact with the victims for direct mediation, engaging community representatives, and even indirect mediation with the victims has proven to be efficacious in the prevention of recidivism (Bouffard et al., 2017). According to Spooner et al. (2017), the incorporation of the GitRedy programs was also tested to be effective in reducing the likelihood of gang-related criminals in juvenile institutions from repeating offenses due to challenges of victimization.

In sum, it is clear that using various methods to improve the increasing problems, including the usage and expansion of drug courts, being of assistance to offenders in securing living-wage employment, and providing a connection of stable housing to the returning prisoners, have played a crucial role in preventing recidivism of ex-offenders.

References

Bouffard, J., Cooper, M., & Bergseth, K. (2017). The effectiveness of various restorative justice interventions on recidivism outcomes among juvenile offenders. Youth violence and juvenile justice, 15(4), 465-480.

Brown, R. (2011). Drug court effectiveness: A matched cohort study in the Dane County Drug Treatment Court. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 50(4), 191-201.

Heroux, P. (2011). Reducing Recidivism: The Challenge of Successful Prisoner Re-Entry. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reducing-recidivism-the-c_b_929510.

Rothfeld, M. (2009). Cuts dim inmates’ hope for new lives. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 August 2021, from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-oct-17-me-rehab17-story.html.

Spooner, K., Pyrooz, D. C., Webb, V. J., & Fox, K. A. (2017). Recidivism among juveniles in a multi-component gang reentry program: findings from a program evaluation in Harris County, Texas. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 13(2), 275-285.

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Prisoners and Recidivism – How to Reduce It

Overview:
This course covers the 3 main areas of Criminal Justice: Policing, Courts, and Corrections. Your assignment is to take one of these elements, which can be broken down (i.e., Corrections may be broken down into Probation, Parole, Community Corrections, Prison and Jobs, Prison Life, Correction Officers, etc.), and research the historical perspective. The paper should summarize how/where it began and where it is now. The paper should also include your thoughts on changes, opinions, and ideas that you would employ. These changes can be structural, bureaucratic, etc.
Instructions:
For this assignment, you will submit your Research Paper based on the resources you selected in Unit 5. Your research paper must include:
 Abstract
o The abstract should be a single paragraph, double-spaced, and be between 150-200 words in length.
o The abstract should also contain your thesis statement.
 An introduction to your approved topic.
 Describe where it was in a historical context and where it is now.
 Your thoughts on needed changes, opinions, and ideas you would employ(structural, bureaucratic, etc.) and how you would employ them
 Conclusion
Requirements:
 Length: at least 5, 12 pt. font, double-spaced, APA formatted pages (not including abstract, title, and reference pages).