Recidivism remains high despite states’ efforts
Despite increases in state spending on prisons, more than four in 10 offenders were returning to state prison within three years of their release, according to a report released April 12 by the Washington-based Pew Center on the States (PCS). At the same time, “State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons” also found that a variety of evidence-based strategies helped several states lower their recidivism rates.
Nearly 43 percent of prisoners released in 2004 and 45 percent of those released in 1999 were re-incarcerated within three years, either for committing a new crime or violating the terms of their supervised release, according to “State of Recidivism.” (The states that responded to the survey provided prisoner release data for one or both of those two years.) At the same time, state corrections spending, driven almost entirely by prison expenditures, has quadrupled over the past two decades, making it the second fastest growing area of state budgets, trailing only Medicaid. Total state spending on corrections today is more than $50 billion a year. “There’s been an enormous escalation in prison spending but a barely noticeable impact on the national recidivism rate,” said Adam Gelb, director of PCS’s Public Safety Performance Project, in a statement.
Of the 33 states that reported data for both 1999 and 2004, recidivism rates fell in 17 states and climbed in 15 states, while one state reported no change. Six states (Alaska, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Utah) reported that more than half of released offenders returned to state custody within three years in 2004-2007, while five (Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming) had recidivism rates under 30 percent.
“The State of Recidivism” examines how policies in Oregon, Michigan and Missouri helped cut reoffending and corrections costs. According to the report, sustainable reductions in recidivism are achieved when states invest in evidence-based policies, programs and practices that target offenders upon admission to prison and motivate offenders to stay crime- and drug-free through a combination of swift and certain sanctions for violations and positive incentives for compliance. “Some states like Texas have begun to shift dollars into strategies for nonviolent offenders that cost less than prison and are more effective at stopping the revolving door,” Gelb said.
If the 41 states that provided data for 2004 could reduce their recidivism rates by just 10 percent, they could save more than $635 million combined in one year in averted prison costs, according to the report. California could save $233 million in one year by reducing its recidivism rate by 10 percent. “Policies aimed at reducing recidivism offer perhaps the ripest opportunities for achieving the twin goals of less crime and lower costs,” Gelb said. “State leaders from across the political spectrum are finding they can agree on strategies that do a better job of turning offenders from tax burdens into taxpayers.”
Read the press release on “The State of Recidivism” or download the full report.
