Reducing Recidivism in Philadelphia and Camden - Literature review Example

Darleta Treadwell] [C.Birden] [English 102] [11/13 Received 11//23 email Paper draft: 11/23 Ms Treadwell: Bring in your outline and add in the margin the section of outline you are working on (in pencil, next to the ¶ corresponding to the section) . Add the URLs to your WC list. Create WC citations in MLA format: hanging indents. Add a header to each page w/ your name and page number in the upper right hand corner. Bring in printouts/photocopies of pages from which your sources are taken. Without the source copies, I cannot tell if your words are accurately attributed. I’ve gone through the first third and noted where you must correct the draft. This seems to be a report done in APA style, not in MLA style. Return this with at least five data sets from five sources, complete with printouts or photocopies so I can see the original source. CMB Reducing Recidivism in Philadelphia and Camden: What do prisons and communities contribute to rehabilitation? Introduction Recidivism is an undesirable repetitive act or behavior of a person after experiencing negative outcomes of that act and being trained or treated to extinguish that behavior. The phenomenon is also referred as the rate of former prisoners who are arrested again for the same crime. The term has been frequently used in relation with substance abuse and criminal behavior (Topic: Recidivism).  Overall, recidivism is commonly measured as any kind of re-incarceration or re-arrest in first occurrence after the convicts are released from the prison of state (Nicolette et al., 2013). The impact of incarceration on ex prisoners has been quite common topic of discussion for the government officials, communities and philanthropists. According to Pew Center on States report, the average rate of national recidivism for released prisoners was 43.3% in 2011. The recent history of United States reveals that there is radical increase in rate of incarceration that resulted in filling prisons that affected environment and conditions of the prison badly. The justice system of United States has conventionally paid attention at front end by imprisoning the convicts while the tail end of system is ignored which is to curtail the recurrence of offense by incarcerated persons. This is quite critical because 95% of the released prisoners return back to their communities (Prison News, 2014). Recidivism can be geographically categorized to mark the most affected areas in order to devise coping mechanism along with appropriate allocation of resources. Generally it is found that recidivism rate has been higher in densely populated counties (Nicolette et al., 2013). Following is analysis of few places which have high recidivism: According to a report of University of Pennsylvania, ex- convicts often go back to jails due to lack of organized transitional services. The social service capacity in Philadelphia to tackle the ex-prisoners re-entry is relatively better than most of the American cities in terms of providing coordinated services to the prisoners who are released from the jails; however there is an obvious need to share information and create inter agency collaboration. The ex- offenders of Philadelphia need investment in their education and employment to counter successful transition of such people back to their communities and to decrease probability of their re-arrest and re-incarceration. More than 40,000 prisoners are released from state and federal incarcerations into the region of Philadelphia and around 200,000 to 400,000 former prisoners are always in need of some sort of assistance at any instance that could be need of health treatment like mental illness treatment, substance abuse treatment, emergency shelter, education service, family counseling, job training and placement, housing services, etc. One can find the similar situation and statistics in other major cities of the country (Philadelphia Recidivism). Densely populated counties of the State of New Jersey have been facing high rate of recidivism. Overall the rate has been found to be 42% in the New Jersey among which 15% of the former prisoners are re-arrested for committing new crimes while 27% technically violate probation / parole. Essex, Camden and Hudson are among the top three counties of New Jersey regarding the issue of re-incarceration. The budget of 2012 had allocated $1.2 billion for the inmates that mean that the cost for each inmate was $54,865 (NJ Department of Corrects, 2012). Camden city is highly affected by poverty and is quite unsafe due to rising crimes like violence, murders, etc. Around 11% of the entire population of prisoners of New Jersey comes back to Camden (State Policy Topic). Measuring Recidivism Conventionally recidivism has been denoted by recurrence of committing crime buy criminologists might not have identified the measure whether a crime has been committed. Criminal justice occurrences like official record of arresting conviction are not a perfect measure to assess criminal activity because numerous times the crimes are not detected. Another measure is to interview the participants of study and inquire them about the crimes they have commended. Due to memory decay and various methodological issues, interviewing is also subjective and imperfect to measure recidivism; hence the phenomenon is measured in different ways to evaluate the corresponding methods. The effective ways to measure recidivism could be analysis of criminal justice occurrences, interviewing the convicts, plotting graph of new offense occurrences, time lapsed and the risk factor (Measuring Recidivism). Stakeholders Incarcerated individuals and their families especially children, people who became victim of their incarceration, personnel of justice system like policemen, officers of parole, jail guards and profit seekers of prisons are direct stakeholders of recidivism. It broadly affects communities and societies. For instance, anyone can become victim of crimes like robbery, snatching, murder, etc and as a result people living in crime dense area are highly affected. Government has to bear huge cost of recidivism, thus tax payers of economy are indirect stakeholders of recidivism. Cost of Recidivism Department of Corrections of the states significantly spend on jails, probation and corrections. Federal budgets also allocate funds for prisons of the counties. Total annual expenditure of correction sums up to $63.4 billion (Church Publishing, 2014). The report of Vera Institute of Justice reveals that the cumulative cost of prisons was around $39 billion (Hendrickson and Delaney, 2012) while the annual public cost per inmate in those 40 states was $31,286 on average while the same average cost of nationwide was $11,184 in the same year (U.S. Department of Education). The average cost per federal inmate was $29,000 in 2010. The annual budget expense of incarceration for states and federal government was $80 billion (U.S. Department of Justice). Their families go through economic issues, strain, distress, social stigmas, etc and such costs cannot be estimated. If the rate of recidivism is curtailed by 10%, it can cumulatively save $635 million in a single year by turning away prison cost. Even if 10 primarily affected states reduce the recidivism rate by 10%, they can collectively save $470 million per annum. The states include Ohio, Texas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Alaska (Pew Trust). In Pennsylvania, the admitted recidivists take more than 1.3 million bed days in a single year that costs up to $121.2 million per annum. If the current rate of recidivism (49.6%) is reduced by 10%, that could result in saving 257,573 bed days and the financial cost saving would be $16.5 million (Recidivism Report, 2013). Recidivism Statistics The statistics related to recidivism have been categorized and discussed as follows: Race The state of Pennsylvania also has similar statistics of recidivism that reveal the highest reentry of African Americans inmates. Comparing three years recidivism record in blacks, Hispanic and whites, it is found that the rate of re-arrest is 56.9% in blacks, 46.5% in Hispanics and 44.7% in whites. Similarly the rate of re-incarceration in blacks is 45.5%, 42% in Hispanics and 40.7% in whites. Overall recidivism rate is 66.8% in blacks, 57.4% in Hispanics and 57.8% in whites (Recidivism Report, 2013). The nationwide and state statistics reveal a clear need to focus on African American community to reduce recidivism. Employment Employment is thought of as a key source to reduce recidivism because it helps the inmates to focus on being more pro social and as a result the risk of interacting with such people and engaging in offending behavior is lowered. Their income from jobs can contribute towards betterment of their families and let them attain self esteem and improved mental condition. According to Tripodi et al. (2010), the risk of recidivism decreased by 68.5% for the individuals who were able to secure jobs after they released. The ex inmates who remained unemployed were re-incarcerated over an average period of 17.3 months with a range of 4 to 47 months which is 9 to 60 months for the employed individuals. This means that the people who get jobs after being released are less likely to commit another crime over short period of time. Gender Rate of recidivism in women far less than that of men and the three year statistics reveal that women recidivism rate is 19% while that of men is 34%. The average time spent for men is 38 months while the average time spent for women is 24 months only. Around 29% of the released women have to follow some kind of supervision as compared to the average of 35% released men who need to follow supervision of any kind ("Recidivism Report: Recidivism and Gender April 2012"). The three years statistics of state of Pennsylvania have revealed that the rate of re-arrest for women is 36.8% while that of men is 51.8%. The rate of re-incarceration among women is 28.4% and 44.2% among men. Overall, recidivism among women is 46.9% and 63.2% among the men (Recidivism Report, 2013). Education The findings of Prison Journal reveal that employers are more likely to hire an ex inmate who attains education; hence the probability of employment is higher for those offenders who educate themselves in the prisons. It is also found that around 33% of the inmates have not even done their high school diploma as compared to the 10% non-incarcerated population. The state of Maryland has saved $24 million by reducing the recidivism rate through correctional education programs in the prisons that is two times the money spent on the programs (ScienceDaily). Coping Recidivism Federal government and state governments have been endeavoring to reduce rate of recidivism through certain strategies. All the formulated strategies are broadly of two types i.e. community based strategies and in prison strategies. Both the strategies are discussed along with recommendations as follows: In Prison Strategies These strategies are applied to train or treat the prisoners in order to curtail recidivism rate. Some of the initiatives are discussed below: Education Partnership The need is to build partnership between prison systems, vocational centers and community colleges so that the entire system of correctional education is enhanced and to achieve the broader goal of reducing rate of recidivism by creating more opportunities. This is a kind of investment that can potentially save costs of million dollars in system of criminal justice. Preferably young inmates, women offenders with children and low level offenders who have above average education level should be selected and offered earlier release if they successfully complete GED exams or other preparatory programs .They must reveal their commitment to get enrolled in vocational or post-secondary programs after their release. The initiative to expand and improve access to vocational or post-secondary education for the prisoners is required. Frequent visits of educators and enhancing distance learning mode can make it possible to nurture trend of higher learning in the prisons (Ana et al. 2010). The key stakeholders for the initiatives are community colleges of the region, vocational training centers and non-government organizations that support reintegrating the ex-convicts successfully. University of Pennsylvania should also partner with the prison system of Philadelphia to offer internships to the ex-offenders for correctional education and employment services. Similar model should be replicated in other states and major cities as well. Further the partnership program should address the needs of employment and education and the mechanism of coordination and funds management should also be devised. Cost and benefit analysis of the program needs to be performed prior to conducting the program. Contents of the education should be designed such that it helps to positively influence behavior of the inmates. Capacity Management Most of the prisons have been operating at their optimum or above level of their designed capacities. Many of the prisons have exceeded the space and several houses have been converted to expand bed space and temporary and portable beds have been added to augment the housing space. Around 63% of the entire population of prisons comprises of those who await sentencing and violators of parole or probation who lie ahead to their status hearings. Many of the prisoners have been holding only single cases that require $510 or even less for their bales (The PPS, 2010). Such an overcrowding is making the things worse and rendering the strategies ineffective. Thus the need is to efficiently manage prison system so that there is adequate space and resources available for the prisoners to learn and mold their behavior. The prisoners who are not threat to public safety interest should be released earlier after sufficient monitoring. House arrest and/or pretrial probation along with GPS tracking can help to decide the early release of specific prisoners. Low level offenders and women with children should also be considered in such a category. Second chance act is also a good example of legislation that attempts to minimize the recidivism by lowering prison population. Community Approaches These strategies deal with the post-release interventions that help the ex-inmates to reintegrate to their communities and earn back their self esteem to stay away from re-incarceration and re-arrest. Major approaches are discussed as follows: Reintegration Centers Currently there are fewer reintegration centers in the main cities of the country that help the ex- inmates to get back to their normal lives. People suffering through mental disorders like borderline personality disorder or anti social personality disorder need treatment and training to comprehensively overcome their troubles and refrain from committing any offense in the future. Thos centers should help the ex- inmates to attain employment so that they earn their lost respect in the society and live a non-criminal life (Drago et al. 2011). Campaign of Social Justice It is seen that recidivism prevails in most of the areas where people are socially deprived and there are social, racial and ethnic barriers that hamper them to grab opportunities and stay uneducated or unemployed and eventually commit crime. There are specific locations where the crimes are quite common and recidivism is prevailing phenomenon at such places. Community based organizations and state agencies can attempt to overcome such societal gap through awareness campaigns that may lead towards building balanced society and as a result recidivism rate will be curtailed a great deal. The social acceptance of the convicts can also help to reduce recidivism as those ex- offenders would gain respectable place in their communities and would realize the difference between both kinds of lives. Counseling Post- release counseling of the inmates is very important to counter recidivism because the offenders usually commit crimes because they do not learn the ways to overcome their behavioral and psychological issues and the causes that push them to being re-incarcerated or re-arrested. Thus trained professionals should guide those ex- inmates to utilize their skills learned in the prison and channelize their potential to acquire employment (U.S. Department of Justice). Conclusion Major stakeholders that include prisoners, offenders, prison system, government agencies and community based organizations have to play their role effectively in order to reduce recidivism. A convict who returns to his society needs to be counseled to mold his behavior of repeating the criminal activities. By creating employment opportunities and letting those to reintegrate into their communities and families will help to keep the ex- offenders away from interacting crime oriented groups and people and eventually they will not recidivate in future. Resources like education access and counseling should be provided to let them be useful citizens of their societies.   Works Cited Ana, Liss, et al. "Reducing Recidivism By Improving Prisoner Access to Education." 2010. Web. November 19, 2014 Drago, F., R. Galbiati, and P. Vertova. "Prison Conditions and Recidivism." American Law and Economics Review (2011): 103-30. Print. Hendrickson, C and Delaney, R. “The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers,” Vera Institute of Justice, Center on Sentencing and Corrections, January 2012 Web. November 19, 2014, Schmitt, J. and Warner, K. "Ex-offenders and the Labor Market." Center for Economic and Policy Research, (2010) Department of Corrections. "Offenders in New Jersey Correctional Institutions on by County of Commitment." State of New Jersey Department of Corrections, January 3, 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. . NIJ. “Measuring Recidivism | National Institute of Justice”. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. . Philadelphia Recidivism,. “Reducing Recidivism: The Challenge of Successful Prisoner Re-Entry.”, Paul Heroux – State Rep, 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. < http://www.paulforattleboro.com/philadelphia-recidivism.html> "Prison education programs reduce inmate prison return rate, study shows." ScienceDaily. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. "Four in 10 Offenders Return to Prison." The Pew Charitable Trusts. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. "Lowering Recidivism through Family Communication." Prison News. N.p., Apr. 2014. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. . Nicolette at al., "Recidivism Report 2013." Department of Corrections Pennsylvania, 2013, Web. . "Recidivism Report: Recidivism and Gender April 2012." Florida Department of Corrections -- Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. "State Policy-Topics-Pew Trusts." State Policy-Topics-Pew Trusts. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. “The Pennsylvania Prison Society.” 2010. Web November 19, 2014 "Topic: Recidivism." Crime Solutions. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. . Tripodi, S. J., Kim, J. S., & Bender, K. "Is Employment Associated With Reduced "White Paper on Security." Church Publishing, 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. . Recidivism?: The Complex Relationship Between Employment and Crime." International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology , 54 (5), 706-720, 2010 U.S. Department of Justice, “Smart on Crime: Reforming the Criminal justice System for the 21st Century,” August 2013. Web. November 19, 2014 U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, “Fast Facts,” National Center for Education Statistics. Web. 26 Nov. 2014 < http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66> Read More