{"id":13428,"date":"2011-05-15T09:02:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=13428"},"modified":"2011-05-15T09:02:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-15T14:02:20","slug":"major-new-study-on-recidivism-rates-shows-stability-over-time-and-variation-among-the-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/05\/major-new-study-on-recidivism-rates-shows-stability-over-time-and-variation-among-the-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Major New Study on Recidivism Rates Shows Stability Over Time and Variation Among the States"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pew Center on the States has released a\u00a0major new empirical study on recidivism rates among released prisoners<\/a>. \u00a0Bottom line: about 40 percent are returned to prison within three years of release. \u00a0About half are returned for violations of parole conditions, and half for new convictions. \u00a0Return-to-prison rates vary widely among the states, from 22.8 percent in Oregon to 61.2 percent in Minnesota. \u00a0Wisconsin\u2019s 46-percent rate is a little above the national average.<\/p>\n

The most recent comparable study was released by the United States Department of Justice\u2019s Bureau of Justice Statistics almost a decade ago. \u00a0The BJS study tracked three-year recidivism rates of prisoners released in 1994. \u00a0The Pew Study followed cohorts in 1999 and 2004. \u00a0(The numbers presented above come from the 2004 cohort.) \u00a0Although the Pew methodology varied from BJS\u2019s in several respects, both found return-to-prison rates of about 40 percent, suggesting a remarkable consistency in recidivism rates over time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although the national rate has remained steady, individual states have seen substantial changes. \u00a0Here again Oregon stands out, with a drop from 33.4 percent for the 1999 cohort to 22.8 percent for those released in 2004. \u00a0Here\u2019s how Pew accounts for Oregon\u2019s success:<\/p>\n

In prison, Oregon inmates receive risk and needs assessments at intake, and targeted case management during incarceration, along with detailed transition planning that begins six months before release. In the community, probation officers use a sanctioning grid to impose swift, certain consequences for violations, creating consistency across offenders and from county to county. In both settings, offender programs are anchored in research and continually monitored and updated to optimize their effectiveness.<\/p>\n

The change in the handling of offenders who violate terms of their supervision was striking. In the past, parole and probation violators filled more than a quarter of Oregon\u2019s prison beds. Today violators are rarely reincarcerated. Instead, they face an array of graduated sanctions in the community, including a short jail stay as needed to hold violators accountable. \u00a0(20)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Pew also observes that it is unwise to assume that a state\u2019s relative recidivism rate reflects strong or weak performance by the state\u2019s department of corrections. \u00a0There are a lot of variables at play. \u00a0Take Oklahoma, for instance, which has one of the nation\u2019s lowest recidivism rates. \u00a0Rather than reflecting a highly effective corrections or reentry program, Oklahoma\u2019s \u201csuccess\u201d may have more to do with its unusually harsh sentencing practices, which result in the imprisonment of many low-risk offenders who would receive probation elsewhere. \u00a0Low-risk going in means better recidivism numbers coming out \u2014 but this is hardly a model to emulate.<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Life Sentences Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pew Center on the States has released a\u00a0major new empirical study on recidivism rates among released prisoners. \u00a0Bottom line: about 40 percent are returned to prison within three years of release. \u00a0About half are returned for violations of parole conditions, and half for new convictions. \u00a0Return-to-prison rates vary widely among the states, from 22.8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}