Recidivism And Prison Reentry Essay

Recidivism and Prison Reentry

The US has the highest incarceration rate with over 2 million prisoners since 2013 (Al-Rousan et al.) and has one of the highest recidivism rates with 44% of released criminals becoming returning inmates within their first year out (Recidivism Rate by State, 2023). The rights of prisoners have long been unconsidered. Returning to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, prisoners were often tortured and killed for their crimes leading to their sympathy and governments beginning to privatize their abuse. According to Peter Scharff Smith, a professor in Sociology of Law at the University in Oslo, Norway, when the Enlightenment movement began, people started to question the brutal nature of prisons and helped enact

Because of this, prison conditions are not constructive. The way prisons are structured allows for violence, despite prisons by law having to protect the well-being of its prisoners, and allows for the decline of prisoners' mental health. These issues are overlooked willingly or unknowingly and lead prisoners to recidivism and prison reentry as they disallow prisoners an environment for reform. The physical well-being of prisoners is overlooked and they are at constant risk of being endangered. The environment of prisons allows violence to permeate and according to the Today Equal Justice Initiative, an organization created by Bryan Stevenson which works to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, the environment of prisons and jails puts prisoners at risk of being beaten, stabbed, raped, and killed by the hands of other inmates and indirectly by corrupt officials who abuse their power (Equal Justice Initiative, 2019). Due to the violent nature of prisons, they do not allow prisoners to reform their behavior and progress as people. They instead pervade an environment of violence and little is done to avert such natures against prisoners despite constitutional law requiring them to do so. Prisoners are left at risk of facing abuse by fellow inmates and even the prison system itself (Equal Justice Initiative, 2019). Prisons fail to keep prisoners safe which leads to a cycle of harm and abuse. Violence against prisoners often goes unnoticed by the system or is actively ignored. Prisoners are routinely put in harm's way allowing violence to perpetuate. Systems of reform are needed to help combat this issue, but according to Hopwood a writer for The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, many prisons over the years have denounced the idea of rehabilitation and educational programs, and these programs have