National Offender Tracking System: Reducing Recidivism

Fifty-four months for Internet fraud is an extreme amount of time to reflect on fraudulent Internet transactions. Likewise, one month for sexual assault is an extremely short amount of time to reflect on an action of such force against another individual. In addition, especially with the obvious increase in incarceration in the United States since 1980(CITE 7), it seems that the United States' criminal justice system is incarcerating individuals just for the sake of incarceration, yet this is not helping to reduce America's crime

Similarly, Brown found that in a matched cohort study comparing traditional prison sentencing to drug court programs it was shown that there was significantly less recidivism in the drug court participants than in the offenders that were sentenced to jail or prison time. In this study 137 drug court participants were matched with offenders that had been sentenced traditionally. It was shown that the recidivism rate for drug court participants was only thirty percent, whereas the traditionally sentenced participants had a forty-seven percent recidivism rate. Brown also examined the time between program completion and participants committing a new crime. In the drug court participants, the mean time was 614 days, and in the traditionally sentenced participants the average time was 463 days (Brown,

My findings focused on the points that mass incarceration substantially affects families and jobs, which then become factors in the issue of recidivism. Moreover, these problems especially target minorities at high rates. To strengthen these points, I could have done more interviews, especially with past convicts or convicts who have returned to jail in order to get more first-hand experiences. As well as interviews with different ages of children exposed to incarceration to see if or how the effects differed. In the future, I hope to expand on the other ways incarceration affects lives, such as through health, especially mental health, or college opportunities.

Prison classification systems are critical for the welfare of incarcerated people and are argued among a variety of people regarding the feasibility of the implementation of such classifications. The prison classification system is a "method of assessing inmate risks and needs that balances the security and concerns of the institution with treatment needs of the individual", (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014, p. 163). We simply cannot turn a blind eye towards the needs of incarcerated individuals nor their welfare, regardless of the crimes they have been convicted of committing. Common sense allows that an individual incarcerated for an extended period of time will affect the livelihood of that individual as the new life they engage in is usually different from their previous one as well as limited freedom they will endure. The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals emphasized on the variables of an offender as they determine how and where an offender should

Recidivism costs the state of Florida more than $150 million annually (Florida Department of Corrections). A strong financial incentive is not the only thing bringing Florida legislators to the table however; electoral calculations also are a draw for the legislators. Reducing the amount of felons in Florida through education programs and through an improved rehabilitation system while cutting state prison spending is a platform that appeals to Democrats and Republicans alike. Legislators campaigning for re-election will be able to tout effective criminal justice reform as one of their accomplishments over their past term. When a task force studied recidivism for the state of Florida in 2004, it concluded that “the loss of civil rights upon conviction of a felony” (Miller and Spillane 405) was an element of Florida’s criminal justice system that needed to be reformed.

However, the penalty stands to be only temporary. Studies have shown that only seventy-one percent of those released from prison are convicted of a serious crime within only three years after their releasement ( ). Is prison housing the criminals or teaching them? A correctional facility is built to correct and rehabilitate, however prison systems in America appear to be only a short stop before the production of the criminals grand plan. The majority of those who are sentenced to prison have a high rate of returning due to their difficulty in gaining a position with a self-sustaining wage and a lack knowledge on a life without crime.

Our prison system is nothing more than a people mill, where more than hundreds of individuals go in for the crimes they commit, and they do not necessarily come out. Policymakers and the public see mass incarceration as a useful tool for a swift and stern justice system but mass incarceration, in fact, has a negative impact on crime and carries collateral consequences with it. Mass incarceration and

If the criminal justice system is effective, it should be able to reduce the rate of recidivism by providing appropriate punishment, rehabilitation, and support to offenders. High rates of recidivism suggest that the criminal justice system is not effectively addressing the underlying causes of criminal behavior or providing adequate support to help offenders reintegrate into society. This can result in a cycle of crime and punishment that is not only costly to society, but can also perpetuate social inequality and lead to further criminal behavior. Reducing recidivism requires a multifaceted approach that includes not only punishment, but also education, job training, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and other forms of support that can help offenders address the underlying causes of their criminal behavior and reintegrate into society. By reducing recidivism, the criminal justice system can help to create safer communities, reduce the burden on the criminal justice system, and promote greater social justice.

The high incarceration rate of Black Americans has pervasive and chronically negative stigmas regarding the social and economic vitality of the Black American community, such as a lack of democratic participation and violence within urban communities (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011). According to Forman Jr. (2012), some of 5 the negative affects of systemic racism of Black Americans born into the hip-hop generation who have been convicted include the ineligibility of public assistance programs such as health care, food stamps, public housing, student loans, and some employment opportunities. Additionally, many of the individuals suffering from the stigma of incarceration come from backgrounds of disadvantage such as single parent homes, low

Over the second half of this State and Local Government course we have been reading and discussing The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Her overarching theme for this book has been incarceration, and its purpose is to change the way we think about the world and its systems. All of our class discussions on incarceration and all it entails, led me to wonder what the connection between incarceration and crime is. In this paper I will be using multiple sources that have to do with crime and incarceration in order to find out how incarceration relates to crime rates and if incarceration is the reason for crime decline. I will go over all the information I found on this topic including my findings on incarceration, including statistics and rates,

The goals of this experiment were to test the hypothesis that a prisoner and guards personality traits were a main cause of abusive behavior in prison. Twenty-four participants were assigned either the role of a guard or prisoner and the experiment was to last 7 to 14 days. Conducted in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building, Zimbardo instructed the guards not

The current system that incarcerates people over and over is unsustainable and does not lower the crime rate nor encourage prisoner reformation. When non-violent, first time offenders are incarcerated alongside violent repeat offenders, their chance of recidivating can be drastically altered by their experience in prison. Alternative sentencing for non-violent drug offenders could alleviate this problem, but many current laws hinder many possible solutions. Recently lawmakers have made attempts to lower the recidivism rates in America, for example the Second Chance Act helps aid prisoners returning into society after incarceration. The act allows states to appropriate money to communities to help provide services such as education, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, job corps services, and others to aid in offenders returning to society after incarceration (Conyers, 2013).

Incarceration refers to the constitutional deprivation of an offender the capacity to commit crimes by detaining them in prisons. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation. The U.S incarcerates five times more people than the United Kingdom, nine times more than Germany and twelve times more than Japan (Collier, 2014, p.56). Incarceration has several objectives. One of these is to keep persons suspected of committing a crime under secure control before a court of competent jurisdiction determines whether they are guilty or innocent.

These traits play a big role in a person's behavior and attitude, and that can be seen when looking at a criminal's personality. Criminal's may have inherited traits that cause them to be violent, short tempered, or even just what they like can cause them to commit a crime. Now let's look at the nurture side of a criminal's development. When we are talked about an individual's environment, we are not just talking about where they live. We are talking about what type of parents someone had, and whether the parents were loving and affection it, or were they cold and neglectful.

“The major integrated theories of crime including multifactor theories, latent traits theories, and life-course theories or what are known as ‘developmental theories.’ Multifactor theories suggest that social, personal, and economic factors exert influence on criminal behaviour. Integrated theories have become popular; given the move away from the assumption that the world can be divided into criminals and non-criminals, hence the value of multi-factor theories and how practical it has become with computer tools to assist in the process. Latent trait theories assume that a number of people in the population have a personal attribute or characteristic that controls their inclination or propensity to commit crimes. This disposition or latent