The United States has more people in prisons than any other developed country in the world (Freudenberg 2). Of those 2.2 million prisoners, nearly three quarters of a million will be released from state, and federal prisons this year. Of that number, about half of them will be back in prison over the next three years, and continue a cycle of deviance (Katel 4). Recidivism means to have “a tendency to lapse into a previous pattern of behavior,” and in this case, criminal behavior. A sociologist, Robert K. Merton, developed a concept called a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” He explained, “how a belief or expectation, whether correct or not, affects the outcome of the way a person will behave. Thus, labeling someone a criminal, and treating that person as such, may foster criminal behavior in the person who is subjected to the expectation”. With prison populations expanding at a phenomenal rate, and our country spending six times more on prisons then higher education, it is crucial to decrease the recidivism rate, and the best way to lower this rate is through education (Crary 3). The solution to decrease the recidivism rate and keep our prisons from being overcrowded is to create programs that focus on academics, parental education, and vocational training.
There are some programs in our country that focus on inmate vocational training, as a way to decrease the recidivism rate. One of these programs has been created, and implemented by the LifeTech Institute. The program focuses on providing technical workforce training to parolees (Johnson 10). Another program that has been created is called Project New Attitudes. This program was created by the country’s largest law enforcement agency, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, in Clearwater Florida. The residents of this program learn many life skills, along with vocational skills. The curriculum of the program focuses on interpersonal relationship development, self-development, communication skills, job skills development, anger management, and accessing social services. To test the success of the program, two measures were used. Both re-arrest rate, and length of the arrest were calculated to come to a conclusion about whether, or not this program decreased recidivism rate among those who entered the program. After careful review, this nine week program proved to be effective, and it is continuing to educate its’ residents. Although this program was successful, even programs that show moderate success rates in decreasing recidivism more than cover the cost of the programs themselves (Jalazo 11). Programs that focus on educating prisoners, or former inmates in vocational training, help them enter the work forces, which decreases their likelihood returning behind bars, and therefore decreases the recidivism rate.
There are also some programs that focus on the academic growth of an inmate. Some of these programs allow for inmates to receive their general equivalency diplomas before leaving prison. Palmetto program in South Carolina is one of the programs that are created for inmates to receive academic education. This program is like many of its kind, and aims to reduce the recidivism rate by educating inmates. These programs are slightly different then vocational training programs, because their aim is for the inmate to receive academic training, rather than trade training. California is one of the states that make it easier to create programs that focus on academic growth for prison inmates. A law called “Secure Re-Entry Facilities” was passed in 2008, and the law decreased the total number of inmates in the states prisons by more than 4,700 in only 18 months. With the passage of the law, the number of inmates enrolled in academic programs, like the Palmetto program, rose to 11,925 to 14,050. Tim Terry was in the GED program in Palmetto, and said that the “program played a big part in his life when he got out of prison after serving more than 15 years on a voluntary manslaughter charge”(Barnet 9). Programs that focus on academic education, also help inmates enter the workforce, while helping them feel more confident about themselves, which leads to a decrease in the recidivism rate.
Another way to reduce the recidivism rate is to reintegrate inmates into family in a productive and positive manner. Partners in Parenting curriculum is a skilled-based program focusing on promoting positive behavior, by strengthening family relationships. One of these programs was started in Colorado, and focused on mothers who were incarcerated. 219 mothers participated in this program, and the success of the program was measured. Results revealed that the mother who were a part of the program, and participated in parenting education classes demonstrated improved skills in parenting. “Research suggests that children who have a parent in prison are more likely to develop emotional and behavioral difficulties such as withdrawal, aggression, anxiety, depression” Parenting education programs help the child, as well as helping the mother. However, not only are these parenting education program are beneficial to the mother and child, but they also help reduce the recidivism rate (Gonzales 6).
In conclusion, it is possible to decrease the overwhelming recidivism rate in our country. Educating our inmates in vocational training academics and parent education can help us achieve this. There is intensive research that has been done by many sociologist and criminologists, which study ways of lowering the recidivism rate. Many of these research studies show that we can achieve a lower recidivism rate by creating programs that focus on education, while increasing the inmate’s confidence. With education, former inmates can learn the life skills necessary to continue their lives, and not return behind bars. Not taking the proper action in creating these programs will result in even more crowded jails, and more of our tax money spent on prisons, instead of other programs that need to receive funding, such as higher education. We cannot continue to spend six times the amount of funding that we spend on higher education, on prisons instead (Crary 3). There are a few things that can be done to advocate for these programs: lobbying, or talking with local elected officials, and state elected officials, is the best way to create more programs for inmates, and to decrease the recidivism rate.
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