Crime is down, are you less afraid?

In his week's Headcase, Slate's Christopher Beam investigates why drops in the crime rate rarely seem to make us feel more safe.

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A Different Kind of Democracy: The "Political Consequences of the Carceral State"

In a recent diavlog on bloggingheads.tv.com, Professor Vesla Weaver of the University of Virginia, and Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, go head to head in a debate that is intitially focused on Ms. Weaver's new article, "Political Consequences of the Carceral State." The discussion soon evolves into a much broader, and somewhat contentious, discussion of topical criminal justice issues, ranging from the disparity of arrest rates between white and black communities, and disagreements over criminal justice stats.

Even more interesting than the debate is the article itself, which examines the ways that involvement with the criminal justice system influences political attitudes and behaviors.  As Ms. Weaver describes in the debate, many individuals in communities with high police presence "see a fundamentally different kind of democracy." This "democracy" is one to avoid at all cost.  These interactions not only influence one's level of public trust in democratic institutions and processes, but effect his/her liklihood of civic engagement, from voting to attending a PTA meeting. Read the article here.

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Calculating Recidivism Rates with the Push of a Button

Via change.org

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has posted an online analysis tool that allows users to calculate recidivism rates for persons released from state prisons. Recidivism rates may be generated for the entire sample of 35,000 released prisoners or for released prisoners with specific demographic, criminal history, and sentence attributes. The tool uses data collected by BJS on a sample of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 and followed for three yerars. A new BJS study on the recidivism of state prisoners released in 2005 is due next year.

BJS says the tool defines recidivism in a variety of ways and allows users to choose the measure that best fits their needs or to compare the various measures of recidivism for the same group of releases. As one example, of black men released between the ages of 21 and 25, more than 80 percent were rearrested within three years and 35 percent were reimprisoned.

http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=datool&surl=/recidivism/index.cfm

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Governor's Budget Maintains Some Support for Prisoner Reentry

Governor Cuomo has proposed steep cuts in New York State spending as part of his first budget released yesterday. Citing declines in the state’s inmate and parole populations, his budget projects that 1500 fewer parolees will be under supervision in the coming year fiscal year that begins April 1, 2011. As a result, the budget projects a savings of 3.7 million from a reduction in Parole staffing as well as 1.8 million in Parole “staffing controls” that are anticipated to reduce overtime. The Governor is also proposing that the State’s Division of Parole merge with the Department of Corrections.


The Budget also chops 273 million from the NYS Department of Correctional Services resulting from the closure of one minimum security prison and half of another in January 2011 (the current fiscal year). The Budget recommends closing an additional 2 prisons in the next fiscal year. The state’s prisons population, which peaked at 71,600 in 1999, is expected to drop another 2100 in the current and next fiscal year to a total of 57,600 inmates – a 21% decrease.

It is not all bad news for advocates of smart criminal justice policies. The Budget also includes continued support for the state’s prisoner reentry initiative. The NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) will continue to coordinate the state’s reentry effort. The Budget includes 3.3 million dollars for local Country Reentry Task Force programs (this funding supports the work of the Upper Manhattan Reentry Task Force). The Budget also includes the following statement of support for Parole’s reentry efforts.

“As part of the effort to reduce recidivism through a focus on community re-entry, the Division of Parole will continue its cooperative efforts with the Department of Correctional Services to expand re-entry programs. The goal is to create a more seamless system for assessing the needs of offenders, ensuring access to services, maintaining accurate records of offender information, and addressing other factors essential to successful community re-entry.”

New York State has reduced both crime and incarceration over the past ten years through the adoption of progressive smart on crime polices. The proposed budget signals support for smart justice policies like reentry.

To read the criminal justice portion of the Governor’s Budget click here.

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Four Reentry Recommendations from Malcolm Young

In his blog post on The Open Foundation Society's blog yesterday entitled, "Unlocking Opportunity for People Leaving Prison", Malcolm Young, Director of the Program for Prison Reentry Strategies at the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University School of Law and a 2010 Soros Justice Fellow, articulates four reentry strategies principles that should guide reentry planning.  These strategies deal with the the realities of the labor market and the obstacles inherent in returning formerly incarcerated individuals to the same communities they left.

1.To address the shortage of public funding for reentry programming, work-related programs should engage private business in the design, delivery, funding, and follow-up to their reentry programming. Businesses are best equipped to define their future workforce requirements. And as it stands, businesses spend a lot of money on training. If corrections provides training that is a benefit to employers and industries, it seems reasonable that the beneficiaries might share the cost.

2. To be relevant in a highly competitive labor market and to gain public support, reentry programs should target jobs in new and expanding businesses where there is not yet a trained work force competing for those jobs.

3. Because most prisoners have no choice but to return to their old neighborhoods, reentry programs should play an active role in helping to build positive communities. Employment reentry programs should work hand-in-hand with programs that advance community and economic development (and should be funded with a portion of the considerable federal, state, and local funds now spent on community development projects).

4. To replicate the success of people like Louis Sawyer, corrections should put a priority on designing and implementing holistic reentry programs that build on strengths, foster motivation, and substantively prepare and connect people leaving prison to particular jobs in advance of their release.

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