JAIL: Finishing School for Criminals?

By Jenn Jacques

Cam Edwards and I had a great discussion on his NRA News program Cam&Co last week titled: “Warehousing Criminals Isn’t Working“. This is a topic we’ve covered many times, both on and off the air. It truly is a fascinating subject and since we’ve received a lot of feedback on the segment, I’d like to dig in a little deeper on the issue.

RESEARCH

The disturbing facts released Wednesday in a study by the U.S. Sentencing Commission of all 25,431 federal offenders released in 2005 make the case for criminal justice reform.

Among the most telling stats? Those on recidivism.

According to the report, “Recidivism refers to a person’s relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime”. In other words: repeat offenders.

As Cam asked in our most recent discussion, “Are jails finishing schools for criminals?”

The results of the study, conducted over an 8-year follow up period, speak for themselves:

• 49.3% of federal offenders were rearrested for a new crime or violation of supervision conditions
• 31.7% of the offenders were reconvicted and 24.6% were reincarcerated
• Offenders who were street-released had a rearrest rate of 52.5% while offenders who were released directly to a probationary sentence …Read the Rest

  Source:: Bearing Arms