A huge problem across the nation is that offenders are returning to prison after previously being convicted of a crime. This may not seem like a big deal, but this shows that our prisons are failing us on the one thing the system promises to do, which is to keep us safe. Prison is supposed to be a place where we use deterrence to try and keep people from doing illegal things, but obviously it is not working. Since recidivism is such a huge issue, we need to find the issue and figure out how to resolve it to better our country and our people. First, let’s discuss the economic aspect of recidivism. There has found to be a direct link between unemployment and an increase in criminal propensity, especially for individuals on the margin of committing …show more content…
This study used a whole-of-population design to examine the prevalence, type and pattern of offending across all psychiatric diagnoses, including schizophrenia, compared to the general population. “It seems that being arrested and being diagnosed with severe mental illness are not independent events. On the one hand, arrest may bring an offender with incipient mental illness to the attention of mental health services whereas, on the other, events related to a psychiatric admission may bring a person with a mental illness to the attention of the criminal justice system.” (Morgan, Valuri, Ferrante, Castle, 2013, pg. 1869) This concludes the fact that people with mental illness are treated differently in the court system than people without mental illness, so how does this affect recidivism? Another study that was done focused on the specifics of recidivism in inmates with mental illness. Recidivism patterns of people without mental illness or substance use disorders were compared with people with serious mental illness, substance abuse disorders, and dual diagnoses. These analyses found that over half of the people who returned to jail during the 4-year follow-up period did so in the first