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Essay On Prison Reform

422 Words2 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

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According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there are currently over 2.2 million individuals serving time in federal and state prison, with 95 percent of those individuals being released and returning to their perspective communities across the nation. Majority of those individuals returning have needs that was either unaddressed while incarcerated or during the reentry process, which will negatively impact their ability to live a crime free productive life while in the community. Once released from prison, inmates are faced with a myriad of challenges such as finding stable housing, maintaining employment, combating substance abuse, and addressing physical and mental health problems. However, with the help of community support, offenders would less likely return back to prison and are

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Prison education is a policy that enables education to incarcerated folks. The meaning and purpose of this policy is to increase the education to thus who are in the system, behind bars. By allowing inmates to enroll and continue their education, this policy has the potential to reduce the recidivism rate in the United States. Flores Forbes claims the recidivism rate in his book, Invisible Men, “Today the recidivism rate is around 65 percent. We

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First, New York taxpayers were spared a program that would not have produced its intended results. The low recidivism rates of participating prisoners conceal the fact that such prisoners are less inclined, even without completing college coursework, to return to crime. Many possess some baseline education and are highly motivated to increase their human capital while incarcerated. Furthermore, participation is voluntary and graduation is not mandatory. With the state socializing the costs of prison education, New York’s average per-prisoner expenses would increase.

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