“The idea that we lock people up, throw them away, never give them a chance at redemption, is not what America is about,” said Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) to a nonpartisan research and educational institute in 2014. “Being able to give someone a second chance is very important.”
More than 1.5 million Americans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons, a figure that has quintupled since 1980—counting those serving sentences in local jails the number rises to 2.2 million.
Nearly 12 million cycle in and out of local jails each year, and still more end up with a criminal record without any period of incarceration.
More than 600,000 Americans are released from federal and state prisons each year.
More than 95 percent of individuals in state prisons are expected to return to their communities at some point.
More than 4.7 million people are currently being “supervised” in the community, with 3.9 million of these people on probation and 850,000 of them on parole.
A report from The Center for American Progress concluded that when someone has a criminal record, it presents obstacles to employment, housing, public assistance, education, family reunification and could result in monetary debts. Many of the offenses on record are minor or non-serious infractions; others are arrests without a conviction.
Due to advanced technologies and information available through the Internet, along with federal and state policy decisions, even minor criminal histories could carry lifelong barriers to social services or resources intended to aid the underprivileged, according to One Strike and You’re Out—How We Can Eliminate Barriers to Economic Security and Mobility for People with Criminal Records.
The report found more than half of adult inmates are parents of minor children, 2.6 million, or one in 25 American children, had a parent in prison in 2012, up from 350,000 in 1980.
U.S. incarceration rates have such a profound effect on families that in 2013, Sesame Street added a character with an incarcerated father, the report noted.
The report cites Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, saying, “Mass incarceration and its direct and collateral consequences have effectively replaced intentional racism as a form of 21st century structural racism. Indeed, research shows that mass incarceration and its effects have been significant drivers of racial inequality in the United States, particularly during the past three to four decades.”
In a positive trend, according to a 2014 Vera Institute of Justice review of states’ laws, 23 states—ranging from Arkansas to Mississippi to California—broadened their expungement laws between 2009 and 2014. Reforms included extending eligibility to additional classes of offenses, reducing waiting periods, clarifying the effect of the expungement or sealing records and altering the burden of proof to facilitate expungement.
A recent study by the RAND Corporation offers evidence that prison education and training programs reduce recidivism, increase employment and yield cost savings.
The RAND study found inmates who participated in correctional education were 43 percent less likely to return to prison than those who did not. Employment rates after release were 13 percent higher for inmates who participated in academic or vocational education programs and 28 percent higher for those who participated in vocational training.
These programs were found to be highly cost-effective. Every dollar spent on prison education saved $4 to $5 in incarceration costs during the next three years, when recidivism is most likely.
Despite their cost effectiveness, prison education and training programs are relatively scarce. According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, the number of federal inmates on waiting lists to participate in basic literacy programs nearly equals the number participating in such programs.
