Recidivism in the News

[RoeBear]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040331/APN/403311092

"New vision, mission statements for the Department of Correction"

Mission Statement:

"The Massachusetts Department of Correction's mission is to promote public safety by incarcerating offenders while providing opportunities for participation in effective programming designed to reduce recidivism."

(Hey, I'm willing to play along)

[Wickerman]

1. Minnesota Dept of Corrections

"It is our mission to develop and provide
effective correctional practices that contribute to a
safer Minnesota."

http://www.doc.state.mn.us/

[freebird71457]

2. Recidivism

As a 20+ year cop, with more than a few years in Corrections, I am as deeply concerned about recidivism as anyone. Many studies and my anecdotal experience tells me that a lot of crime is done by repeat offenders.

One particular criminal who I came in contact with, I arrested seven times over my career, each time for the offense of Burglary. The guy is a grandfather now, and I see him around town occasionally. Hopefully he has gotten too old to crawl through windows. He's not violent, he is not destructive, but he will crawl through your window and steal your TV, your computer, your whatever ain't nailed down.

These mission statements look like so much bureaucratic nonsense. We all want to combat recidivism, and we have tried all the approaches discussed in the corrections community over the years. The simple fact remains that some folks are predators and have to be warehoused for the safety of the public.

I hope that one of these days someone comes up with a measureable, verifiable scheme to reduce recidivism, but frankly I'm not holding out much hope. The sad fact is we need prisons so that the rest of us can sleep at night.

[RoeBear]

3. You wouldn't think...

...that anyone that has been to prison would ever want to go back.

[MrSandman]

4. Institutionalization...

Kind of the antithesis of the army lifer?