Essay On Prison Reform

When discussing prison reform, success is often difficult to measure. One measure of success that the government uses is the recidivism rate. If the rate is lower it means that more inmates are adjusting to life outside of prison. If the rate is higher, like it is now, then prisoners are struggling to gain a footing in society and are going back to prison. As a current measure of success, a recidivism rate that is upwards of fifty percent in most states shows that prison reform and the prison system is failing. There are some proven ways to lower the recidivism rate by properly preparing inmates for reentry. One of these ways is through educational or job training programs. The effectiveness of education programs cannot be refuted. One journal article states that “A recent U S Department of Justice report says that 'Prison-based education is the single most effective tool for lowering recidivism,’” (Esperian 2010). Additional studies and reports show education programs cut recidivism by 30 percent or more nationally and cut recidivism more than in half in several large states (Esperian 2010). These results support the argument that “it is far more profitable for states to fund education classes for inmates,” because “doing so reduces recidivism dramatically, and because

Analysis of the participants found that “EMPLOY increased the odds of gaining postrelease employment by 72%” and concluded that “EMPLOY is an effective employment program for released prisoners,” and “offenders who participated in EMPLOY earned more total wages than those in the comparison group,” (Duwe