...There have been several empirical research materials providing evidence on the success of prison educational programs in reducing the return to prison rates. First and foremost, in Michigan, the Prisoner Education proponents have expressed the importance of educational programs for the ex-convicts while being incarcerated in reducing the rate of recidivism as documented by Brunton-Smith and Hopkins (2014). The primary goal of several prison education programs is to offer behavior correctional lessons while providing instructions that will help refine the convicts’ behavior to meet the behavioral norms of the general public. Skills are incorporated into the prison educational curriculum which is made up of basic skills of literacy and essential...
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...Causes of Recidivism Abstract In recent decades, the United States has undergone a substantial increase in prison population. Across the country, prisons are faced with the problem of severe overpopulation. Although crime rates have dramatically decreased over the years, the rates of incarceration have gone in the opposite direction and continue to increase. One of the major underlying factors for the increase lies within recidivism. Repeat offenders make up a large component of the overall prison population. The purpose of this paper is to present the causes of recidivism and the aspects of an offender’s life that tend to lead to re-incarceration. The term recidivism has been derived from the Latin word recidivus, meaning recurring, as well as the term recido, meaning to fall back. It essentially is used to describe a person who has repeated and undesirable behavior after they have already been treated or trained to stop the behavior, or have already suffered the consequences of that behavior. In the criminal justice field, the term is used to describe released inmates who are rearrested, reconvicted, or re-incarcerated. In the past thirty years, incarceration rates have tripled in the United States, and the national state and federal prison population has surpassed two million inmates (Western 3). The statistics regarding recidivism in the United States are baffling compared to the rest of the world. In fact, according...
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...community from incarceration. This is mostly attributed to the harm caused to victims and society when these individuals re-engage in similar or worse forms of crime. In the year 2006, the Congress enacted the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act which required that state sex offender registry be created and data collected from every state sent to a national database. The aim of this initiative was to provide important information to authorities as well as help protect members of the public and children to be specific who were often victims of sexual assault. This law has had its ups and down, for instance,...
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...Microsoft | What Are the Options? | A Study of Recidivism among our Youth | | | December 4, 2012 | | Abstract In this paper I will be going over the study of our neighborhoods impact on criminals primarily focusing on the reentry rate. Also known as Recidivism When exploring such, there are key issues we must pay close attention to, and that’s the group that’s impacted the most- young black males. Secondly we must review the recidivism rate and how they play a role on the neighborhoods where prisoners return. Third we will determine whether race plays a role in certain areas where the recidivism rates are increasing. Lastly we will discuss several implications that could possibly reduce these rates. Introduction: A criminal career is a sequence of offenses during a period of an individual’s life. This repetitive criminal behavior is called recidivism, and indicates the proportion that becomes involved in criminal behavior, at what age criminal behaviors begins, how long the criminal career lasts and the number of offenses typically committed during the course of the career (Farrington, 1992) Also defined as an estimate of the percentage of released prisoner who commit another offense. There are three different measures of recidivism according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. These are rearrests, reconviction, and reincarceration. Rearrests is described as any arrest that was reported to state identification bureau after release from a correctional...
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...Criminal Justice Abstract This paper uses data on juvenile offenders released from correctional facilities in Florida to explore the effects of facility management type (private for-profit, private nonprofit, public state-operated, and public county-operated) on recidivism outcomes and costs. The data provide detailed information on individual characteristics, criminal and correctional histories, judge-assigned restrictiveness levels, and home zip codes—allowing us to control for the non-random assignment of individuals to facilities far better than any previous study. Relative to all other management types, for-profit management leads to a statistically significant increase in recidivism, but, relative to nonprofit and state-operated facilities, for-profit facilities operate at a lower cost to the government per comparable individual released. Cost- benefit analysis implies that the short-run savings offered by for-profit over nonprofit management are negated in the long run due to increased recidivism rates, even if one measures the benefits of reducing criminal activity as only the avoided costs of additional confinement. Since its beginnings in the mid-1980s, prison privatization in the United States has provoked several rounds of congressional hearings and hundreds of articles discussing its philosophical, organizational, economic, and legal implications. At year-end 2001, privately operated facilities held over 6.5 percent of America’s...
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...Is How Crime Measured in the United States Accurate? LT B February 14, 2014 Is How Crime Measured in the United States Accurate? America's system of reporting crime has undergone a number of changes over the years since its inception in the early 1900s. Some would argue that the system data is invalid and does not accurately reflect the crimes committed, reported, or prosecuted, and neither is it indicative of the cause for criminal behavior. Nonetheless, this system is the only source available with any form of useful data relating to crime. Is there a more reliable alternative to measuring crime and collecting pertinent data? In America, law enforcement agencies use criminal statistic reports to measure crime; however, these statistics do not account for crimes that go unreported, reported crimes that did not lead to arrests, and charges reduced through plea-bargaining. When it comes to analyzing crime statistics a person must use his or her own critical thinking skills. Not all crime statistics will be accurate as it is an attempt to provide the American public with general information gathered that may not be in detail. The subject of Information is key, at the basic level a person should have knowledge in the description of the crime. There are a numerous amount of questions a person must take into consideration when it comes to reading and reviewing these reports. For example, 1.) Examine the source and whether or not it is reliable and trustworthy 2.) Acknowledge...
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...Prison Life and Recidivism Karen Cavanagh CRJ303: Corrections Instructor: Gary Gonzales September 19, 2011 Prison Life and Recidivism Prison recidivism is a problem in the United States, resulting in prison overcrowding. As the government struggles to address the conditions in prisons, researchers have begun to look at alternatives to incarceration. These alternatives can result in lowering crime, recidivism and the prison population. The numbers of people in the United States spending time in prison and the amount of time people are spending is an enormous problem and cost for every state (Langan & Levin, 2002). Prisons correctional role is mainly formed from the special strict environment where sentenced people are placed for a certain period of time. The difference in life conditions, that are stricter, more formal as well as restricted, forces on the sentenced person and has a correctional and educational function on his consciousness of a person. Prisoners have less freedoms and rights than those who are out of prison. They are forced to obey the rules of the correctional facility that includes a strict scheduled daily life, limit time for outside activities out of the cells, limited access to visitors and limited time of the visits. Prisoners in the United States have a shorter period of time for visitors to visit prisoners compared to other countries. The life of prisoners in the correctional institutions is based on the authoritarian regime of the prison’s...
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...characteristics of the learners in your current (or future) role as an educator. The characteristics of my learners are as follows: males between the ages of 18-34 from single family homes; with some high school and with less than 8th grade education. Why choose people that have these particular characteristics? It is because they make-up a large part of the prison population in the United States. In 2002, it was reported that 2,019, 234 were incarcerated in United State Prisons (United Nations Survey, 2002). In 2012, it was reported by the U.S. Justice Department that seven (7) million people or one in every thirty-two (32) adults were behind bars; on probation; or on parole. Of the total, 2.2 million were in jail or in prison. According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College in London, the United States has more people behind bars than any other county. The U.S. incarceration rate is 737 per 100,000 people (Vicini, 2012). Why so many incarcerated? It is my belief that it is due to recidivism. What is recidivism? Recidivism is a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior, especially relapsing into criminal behavior. In the prison system, recidivism refers to released inmates who are re-convicted and re-incarcerated. The rates of recidivism have been known to be as high as fifty-percent (50%) (Reducing Recidivism Through Education, 2012). Those who contribute to recidivism have something in common. Most are male prisoners...
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...Juvenile Offenders Juvenile crimes make up an overwhelming amount of arrests in the United States. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that in 2010, courts with juvenile jurisdiction disposed more than 1.3 million juvenile offender cases. Also in 2010, there were 225 arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses for every 100,000 youth between 10 and 17 years of age (OJJDP, 2012). Violent crime committed by juvenile offenders peaks during the after school hours. Nearly one-third (29%) of all violent crime committed by juvenile offenders occurs between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m (OJJDP, 2010). According to the 2011 Juvenile Offenders and Victims: National Report Series, in 2009, 22% of arrests involving youth who were eligible...
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...recidivisim are evident in incarcerated, drug offenders after they are released. What exactly is recidivism? What do you believe accounts for the high rate of recidivism? Recidivism is a person relapses into the same criminal behavior over and over again. High rates of recidivism stem from drug use, lack of education, poor family structures, mental illnesses, peer pressures, homelessness, inability for convicted persons to obtain jobs after release, unemployment, and poverty. How do you help adolescent drug offenders desiring to be clean if their parents are abusers with no desire to stop using drugs? It is hard to help adolescent drug offenders who have parents that use drugs also. One sure thing is that education plays an important role because it would allow young people with a drug history to see other opportunities that are available. Community programs that train adolescents in vocational areas are important. I have also seen programs that offer life coaches which is someone who will assist adolescents thru everything from budgeting to buying a house, to going to the market, interview skills, how to network, basically teaching them how to care for themselves. However, with anything the adolescent is going to want to make staying clean a priority and utilize this type of service to stay clean for a lifetime. I also believe that mentoring programs play an important role in adolescent drug offenders because it allows them to have someone that will give them support...
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...Do Prisons Work? Can Individuals be Reformed or Rehabilitated through Incarceration and Treatment Programs. Critically examine the Current Treatment Programs offered and Subsequent Impact on Recidivism upon Individuals being released globally and WA specifically. This study will examine the effectiveness of current prison treatment programs in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, United States of America in rehabilitating or reforming an individual and coinciding recidivism rates upon a prisoners release. Prison based treatment programs for sex offenders in Western Australia, New South Wales and New Zealand are examined and recidivism rates compared. Treatment programs for offenders with drug and alcohol issues and the various strategies within the criminal justice system such as diversion, education and drug court programs are examined and differences explained. Rehabilitation programs such as education, life skills, employment and cognitive behavioural treatment are explained and research discussed. Conclusions will be drawn outlining programs with the highest level of recidivism both in Western Australia and globally. The “nothing works” mantra (Martinson) 1974, is seen to be refuted and treatment is seen to be successful when it is matched to the criminogenic needs of the offender (MacKenzie, 2006). Future recommendations are made in regards to the need for correctional staff to assess each offender as an individual with different needs, and to therefore...
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...Running Head: CORRECTIONAL THEORIES 1 Competing Theories of Corrections in The Criminal Justice System Nicole Yaniero AIU Online Running Head: CORRECTIONAL THEORIES 2 Abstract In today’s system, there are several competing theories for what approach should be taken to improve the correctional system. Certain strategies, such as punishment and rehabilitation, have different goals. These goals, in most cases, are different from each other. People all over prefer one strategy to the other, and compelling evidence can be brought into perspective for each. Aside form the usual, non traditional aspects and approaches to fixing the corrections system are also talked about today. This paper will discuss all elements of corrections theories, its goals, its effectiveness, and the rating of completion of academic and vocational programs offered to inmates in prison. Running Head: CORRECTIONAL THEORIES 3 Competing Theories Of Corrections In The Criminal Justice System In today’s day and age, many views and criticism take place of the Criminal Justice system. In specific, the correctional aspect of the system receives much of this criticism. There are two strategies particularly that come into play most often when speaking of corrections. These two strategies are punishment, and rehabilitation. Each of these strategies have its own set of goals...
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...The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. America holds 5% of the world’s population, yet it houses 25% of the world’s prisoners (Walmsley 2013). The approximate amount of spending on our nations prisoners is 74 billion dollars, annually (Silver 2014). With the cost of rising incarceration in the U.S. and climbing recidivism rates, it is more apparent than ever that the American Prison Industrial Complex (“PIC”) is in great need of reform (Wagner 2014). The PIC enforces a recidivism cycle in which more than 50% of prisoners return to prison less than 3 years after release, thus being referred to by the PEW Research Center as “The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons” (2011). Not only is this cycle inflicting...
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...a visual picture for how severe the increase in crime rates and recidivism is in Harrisonburg-Rockingham County. In an attempt to better understand what has led to the steady increase in criminal offenses, education attainment and unemployment rates from 2009 to 2014 is important to examine. Eductaion Harrisonburg-Rockingham County has an education system similar to many other education systems. Although separated by county lines, there are 36 schools ranging from elementary to high school for citizens to attend. Because of the role education plays in the likelihood of success in today’s society, education is very important to obtain. Given its weight on success, Lance Lochner and Enrico Moretti...
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...INCARCERATION AND PRISONER RE-ENTRY Mass Incarceration and Prisoner Re-Entry Student’s name: Tutor: Course: Date: Introduction The objective of a large number of the prisoner reentry programs is to ensure effective prisoner rehabilitation back to the community in order to reduce the likelihood of recidivism. While there have been increased efforts by the government organizations and other not-for-profit organization to promote effective reentry, the effectiveness of these programs are based on the efficiency of the strategies. Studies indicate that the rates of recidivism are greatly reduced where effective reentry programs are utilized (Baglivio, Wolff, Jackowski, & Greenwald,...
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