Recidivism: The Bottom Line

A National Forum on Reentry and Recidivism was conducted in our nation's capital on last December 8th, under the auspices of the Council of State Governments (CSG).  You can view a brief of the forum here.  Partnering with CSG in this worthwhile event were an impressive and prestigious array of organizations, including, the Association of State Correctional Administrators, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Public Welfare Foundation, and the Pew Center on the States.  The aim of the forum was to "build on the progress made over the last decade in the area of prisoner reentry." More specifically, the forum brought together corrections and criminal justice professionals from around the country to note recent reductions in recidivism around the country, and to share the results of recent studies indicating both effective and ineffective reentry strategies.

The major presentation at the forum, "What Works and What Doesn't in Reducing Recidivism: Some Lessons Learned from Evaluating Correctional Programs," (which you can download at the link above), after an extended treatment of criminogenic needs and risk factors, the length and intensity of reentry programs, and "dead horses"--a euphemistic moniker for outdated thinking--comes to a fairly simple conclusion: strategies and programs intended to reduce recidivism must be directed at those offenders at highest risk for re-offending.  That is, while many reentry programs focus upon relatively low level offenders, more serious offenders should be viewed as a higher priority by correctional agencies, governmental entities, and community groups offering reentry services.  Agreed.

The presentation makes no statement about why reentry programs set up to reduce recidivism should target the more serious offenders.  The implication of the argument offered suggests that more serious offenders require more attention because they are more dangerous to the community; because they possess a more criminal mindset.  I see it differently.

More serious offenders require more attention because the larger society is least interested in affording them the employment and career opportunities necessary to achieve self sufficiency.

While I applaud the attention that correctional and criminal justice professionals, other governmental entities, and community organizations, give to reentry programming, I lament the short shrift given to the importance of employment and career opportunities for persons with criminal backgrounds--even serious criminal backgrounds.