Recidivism
March 28, 2012
LA County’s parolee recidivism rate declines under Brown’s prison plan
The number of parolees arrested for new crimes in Los Angeles County has dropped since Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment plan took effect six months ago, drawing cautious optimism from some state and local officials.
The county Probation Department is currently supervising about 6,200 parolees - officially known as post-release supervised persons or PSPs - who were released from state prisons after Oct. 1.
As a group, PSPs have been involved in 1,600 arrests through mid-March, though only about 700 felony cases have been presented to the District Attorney's Office for prosecution...
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
December 20, 2011
Fewer Inmates Returning to Prison After Release
California’s recidivism rate fell to 65 percent this year, according to the 2011 Adult Institutions Outcome Evaluation Report from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This significant reduction of 2.4 percentage points in one year equates to 2,766 fewer offenders returning to prison and an approximate saving to California taxpayers of $30 million.
“A major goal for CDCR and for other public safety officials is to prevent offenders from victimizing again after their release from incarceration,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate. “Even a slight drop in the overall percentage can equate to thousands of inmates who have not returned to prison and likely prevented the victimization of countless citizens. Reducing recidivism has been a primary goal for our agency, and this report shows that progress is being made....”
LINK - CDCRToday.blogspot.com
December 20, 2011
CDCR says inmate recidivism has dropped?
A state report says the number of released California inmates returning to prison has dropped this year by more than two-percent.
The report by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says the reduction of two-point-four percent in the recidivism rate means some 27-hundred fewer offenders returned to prison. That translates to a savings of 30-million dollars...
LINK - CapRadio.org
June 3, 2011
More than 1/2 of all CA parolees return to prison in two years
Five years ago, the state paroled 69,000 prisoners - a normal year. Within two years, about 36,000 were back in prison, according to the latest data from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. About two thirds of parolees released to the Sacramento region were back in prison within two years.
Car thieves were the most likely parolees to come back to prison quickly statewide; murderers were the least likely. This chart shows the number of prisoners paroled during 2006, along with percentage who came back to prison one or two years later...
LINK - SacBee.com
April 15, 2011
State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons
The dramatic growth of America’s prison population during the past three decades is by now a familiar story. In 2008, the Pew Center on the States reported that incarceration levels had risen to a point where one in 100 American adults was behind bars. A second Pew study the following year added another disturbing dimension to the picture, revealing that one in 31 adults in the United States was either incarcerated or on probation or parole.
The costs associated with this growth also have been well documented. Total state spending on corrections is now about $52 billion, the bulk of which is spent on prisons. State spending on corrections quadrupled during the past two decades, making it the second fastest growing area of state budgets, trailing only Medicaid...
March 18, 2011
C-ROB March 2011 Bi-Annual Report
Pursuant to Penal Code section 6141, the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board (C-ROB or the board) is mandated to regularly examine and report biannually to the Governor and the Legislature regarding rehabilitative programming provided to inmates and parolees by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (the department).
C-ROB held its first meeting on June 19, 2007.
According to statute, C-ROB must submit reports on March 15 and September 15 to the Governor and the Legislature...
March 14, 2011
CA prison education programs still failing, Cate promises to fix (again)
State officials are moving to revamp educational classes in prisons across California following widespread complaints that the programs are poorly designed and could leave some inmates ill-prepared for life after release.
A draft report released last week by the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board cited ongoing problems including “increased class size, reduced time in class, administrative paperwork, student turnover, wrongly assigned students, inmate homework, and elimination of some vocational education programs.”
In some California prisons teachers are struggling .to handle as many as 150 students while inmates get as little as three hours of classroom instruction per week..
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org
February 21, 2011
California prison officials hold parolee job fair to reduce recidivism
California prison officials are holding a job fair for ex-offenders in Pasadena Wednesday. The event is the first of its kind in Los Angeles County.
California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is co-hosting the job fair for unemployed parolees. A spokeswoman for the agency says research indicates that a parolee with a job is far less likely to commit more crimes.
Two-dozen employers, many of them small businesses, will be on hand to interview candidates for jobs in construction, telemarketing and other fields. The federal government rewards employers who hire ex-felons with a $9,000 tax break...
LINK - SCPR.org
November 4, 2010
Schwarzenegger’s “Prison Reform” results in higher inmate recidivism
CDCR now measures recidivism by arrests, convictions and returns to prison. CDCR uses the latter measure, returns to prison, as its primary measure of recidivism. Throughout this document, unless otherwise stated, the terms recidivate and recidivism refer to this primary measure...
June 29, 2010
Washington brings last inmates back to state, out of private prisons
The state Department of Corrections says the last group of inmates housed in out-of-state prisons has returned to Washington.
At its peak, Washington housed more than 1,200 prisoners in privately operated prisons in several states. On Tuesday, a chartered plane with 116 prisoners landed in Spokane.
The department says the state prison population has leveled off in Washington, allowing officials to gradually bring back inmates.
Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail says prisoners who are regularly visited are less likely to commit a new felony after release.
LINK - SeattlePI.com
February 4, 2010
Federal Corrections Reports
Find and read reports regarding Federal Corrections; ranging in subject from Capitol Punishment, to Family, Leadership, to Technology and much more...
September 14, 2009
My View: Recycling firm shows the way to fight prison recidivism
California's overcrowded, constitutionally suspect prisons aren't just incarcerating criminals. They're confining our state's ability to fix our fiscal house, better serve taxpayers and provide crucial services for law-abiding, working families and their children. To balance its books, the state has slashed funding for schools, health care and services that protect children and seniors.
With the state cutting funding to the bone for these and other vital programs, Californians deserve a more effective, less costly corrections system…
LINK - SacBee.com
June 11, 2008
Opinion: “Getting more out of Texas prisons”
When it comes to the criminal justice system, Texans get what they pay for. Funding is largely based on volume — as Texas' prison population has quadrupled during the last two decades, the cost to taxpayers has risen proportionally.
Although warehousing works to the extent that inmates cannot commit another crime while in prison, 99 percent of inmates ultimately will be released — usually while still in their prime criminal years. Many of the same offenders are recycled through the system; 60 percent of Texas prison intakes are revoked probationers and parolees. The three-year re-incarceration rate of released Texas inmates has hovered around 30 percent during the past decade.
Leaders from the Texas Capitol to European houses of parliament are increasingly recognizing that reducing recidivism is crucial to controlling future incarceration costs and the incalculable human costs to victims and communities from criminal activity. This realization inspired a 111-page manifesto released in March by England's Conservative Party, titled Prisons with a Purpose: Our Sentencing and Rehabilitation Revolution to Break the Cycle of Crime…
LINK - Star-Telegram.com
March 21, 2008
Parolee arrested after entering homes
A wanted parolee and alleged Bulldog gang member apparently was looking for a place to sleep when he broke into two houses Thursday morning in southeast Fresno, police reported. Frankie Saldate, 28, who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing and for parole violation, Sgt. Frank Rose said.
Saldate, who apparently cut himself when he broke windows to enter the houses, was treated at Community Regional Medical Center for his cuts before he was booked into the Fresno County Jail….
LINK - FresnoBee.com (The Fresno Bee)
March 17, 2008
Colorado weighing its prison options
Roughly 22 percent of the state's inmates are contracted to be in private prisons, a figure that Zavaras predicts could rise to 40 percent in the next few years if the state does not build more beds. But Corrections Corporation of America, which holds 90 percent of the state's private prisoners in its facilities, has requested at least a 4.25 percent increase in its per-day prisoner fees, while the state wants to give no more than 3 percent.
If the state can resolve the dispute and use expected expansions at two CCA prisons and another facility, it can use private prisons to hedge its bets on the success of the recidivism reduction measures, said Rep. Jack Pommer, a Boulder Democrat and member of the Joint Budget Committee.
On the other hand, adding space in state facilities would allow Colorado to move its prisoners out of private facilities and bring them back under state control. That would free the state from fee increase demands, Pommer added.
LINK - Gazette.com (Colorado Springs Gazette)
March 5, 2008
America Behind Bars: Why Attempts at Prison Reform Keep Failing
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared plans in January 2005 to reform California's prisons, starting with a rebranding campaign (it's the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation now), his announcement signaled much-needed relief for California taxpayers, whose overstretched, scandal-prone prison system was screaming for an overhaul.
But three years later, California maintains the second-highest prison population in the country (171,444 in January 2008) and the highest recidivism rate (a staggering 70 percent).
From the start, people familiar with the embattled prison system were skeptical. "Everybody's going to get new business cards and letterheads," said Lance Corcoran, vice president of the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association, "but we haven't changed with respect to providing inmates anything different."
LINK - Alternet.org
February 28, 2008
One in 100 American Adults in Jail or Prison: Report
A new report finds that for the first time, more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison. At the start of 2008, 2, 319,258 adults were in American prisons or jails, or one in every 99.1, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project.
Pew researchers worked on the report with the collaboration of correctional authorities and other prison researchers. They also obtained data from U.S. justice and census reports. Last year, states spent more than $49 billion on corrections, up from $11 billion 20 years earlier, the report stated. While spending grew, the national recidivism rate is virtually unchanged.
LINK - IBTimes.com (International Business Times)
