CRIMINAL JUSTICE Rate for repeat offenders goes up

A recent Justice Department study found that 67.5 percent of prisoners released in 1994 were rearrested within three years.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
HOUSTON -- Emory Dockery squirms on the stool behind plate glass and tries to explain his seventh incarceration in 20 years.
He reluctantly lists the years he was arrested, the sentences he received and the crimes he committed -- mostly drug offenses. This time he's in on a parole violation.
"I left the halfway house," he says. "I knew I would have to face this particular consequence, but I couldn't stay there."
Dockery is one of more than 630,000 inmates being released from prison this year -- the largest such exodus in America's history.
More than half of them return to prison within three years, highlighting a stark problem: In cities from Boston to Los Angeles, violent crime rates have been rising this year in part because of repeat offenses by people newly released from prison.
Dockery's experience is emblematic of the enormous difficulties states face in breaking the cycle of imprisonment and parole. Though ex-cons aren't the only factor behind this year's rise in crime, experts say their challenges lie at the core of the crime problem: Many get out of prison no better than when they went in.
"Because we have shifted our emphasis from rehabilitation to punishment, we are putting people back on the streets ill-prepared for dealing with free society," says James Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston.
"They have inadequate skills, bad attitudes and are going back to their old neighborhoods."
Rates are up
In fact, recidivism rates -- including for violent and other offenses -- appear to be rising. A Justice Department study released this year found that 67.5 percent of prisoners released in 1994 were rearrested within three years, up from 62.5 percent in 1983. For both years, the study covered two-thirds of prisoners released nationwide.
The recidivism challenge has sparked varying responses over the years, including "three strikes" laws that aim to put three-time serious offenders behind bars for life. Others call for renewed focus on rehabilitation, to put people back on the streets with the means to make it.
"There is an overdue awareness that this is a very pressing social issue," says Jeremy Travis of the Urban Institute in Washington, who co-authored a new report on the state of parole in America.
"We quadrupled the rate of imprisonment in 25 years, but we didn't pay enough attention to the inevitability of prisoner release."
Increasing costs
Almost 80 percent of all inmates being released from U.S. prisons are supervised. But states are groaning under the mounting costs associated with that supervision, and experts say the time has come to reform the re-entry process.
Aware that a crisis is brewing, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recently announced a $100 million federal grant for states to help their prisoners return home successfully. But state officials say that is just a fraction of what is needed.
Facing budget deficits, states have begun cutting into corrections -- which for many now is the second-largest budget item.