I think that The Nation did a really good job of revealing the situation that incarcerated women are in once released from prison. By understanding their background it puts the reason why they return to prison in perspective. This clip from the article "Time to End Recidivism" breaks down the situation of the 177 women who are released from prison every day in the United States. For women, the recidivism rate is 58% and women are an fast growing part of the prison population.
"Of these 177 women--on average, they will be 35 years old--fifty-seven will be white, eighty-two will be black and twenty-nine will be Hispanic. Fewer than forty-four will be married, and 118 will have minor children. Of those with children, twenty-six will have an alcohol dependence problem and thirty-seven will have a diagnosed mental illness. Seventy-four will not have finished high school, and more than half were unemployed before arrest. For those who were working, fifty-eight had incomes of less than $600 per month and fifty-three were on welfare.
With little more than the proverbial bus ticket and pocket money, the women will be released from prison and told to stay out of trouble. Not surprisingly, the net result is that within three years of leaving prison, 101 will commit a new offense and sixty-nine will go back to jail. But this doesn't have to be."
People do not commit crimes for no reason. We must look at the root of the problem to find a real solution but when punishment is the main focus in prisons we are only seeing the branches. Rehabilitation programs have the purpose of dealing with root issues - drug addiction, source of income, and more. Although this article is mainly about women, I am sure men face many of the same problems as these women.
The image to the upper left is of a group of female inmates on chain gain duty in Phoenix, Arizona.
2 comments:
Wow those stats are pretty shocking. And I definitely agree that people's internal and external influences play a main role in their crime. Many prisoners are either mentally unstable or have a bad background. It's amazing how consistent the pattern is with low income and crime. Maybe a way to solve this would be providing those in need with better education and more opportunities to succeed. Because youth are directly affected by their environment they should be provided with opportunities to learn that their is more to life that what they might be experiencing and that crime is not the answer.
I agree that if we really were going to try and work on the root problem we would have to begin with issues that begin way before a person commits a crime and goes to prison - problems such as poverty, racism, unemployment, and others. But these issues don't have easy solutions; in some cases they are woven into the fabrics of our society. Hopefully one day we will be able to begin solving these problems and will see the wave of benefits it will begin.
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