Recidivism in Texas Prisons

Whatever else Texas criminal arbiter policy may be accomplishing, it is not lowering the prison house house recidivism rate. Criminal recidivism is a costly phenomenon. The additional crimes that cause persons to be sent back to prison exact costs on both individual victims and society as a whole. The postulate budget must cover the costs associated with additional investigations, arrests, trials, and correctional activities. Worse, the costs incurred by the state associated with the earlier prison experiences of the recidivists in efforts to rehabilitate the prisoners appear to have been wasted.

Obviously, some effective refilling schema is required if the recidivism order in Texas prisons are to be reduced. The Texas Association of X-Offenders (1999) personal counseling programs by former prison inmates along the lines of an Alcoholics Anonymous program. Another view holds that recidivism is reduced by means of causing prisoners to become actively involved in religion. A third perspective contends that longer sentences lead to higher rates of recidivism (Gendreau, Coggin, & Cullen, 1999).

A more frequent contention is that recidivism is reduced by teaching prisoners skills that may be used to gain practice upon release from incarceration (Sewell, 1998). This approach is based on the grooming of vocational educati

This count bequeath be used in the proposed study to provide a basis for understanding the results of the research that will be performed. The findings of the proposed study may be compared with prior data on the bug out investigated.

This study investigated the post release experiences of federal prisoners. The study, however, considered only prisoners who had original vocational education.

on to prisoners during their periods of incarceration.

Another educationally-based approach calls for the improvement of a prisoner's general education skills as a strategy for the step-down of recidivism. The Educational Testing Service (1996) reported that, while to the highest degree of the people sent to prison in the United States finally are paroled, two-thirds of those persons paroled lack the literacy skills necessary to function in American society. For prisoners in this classification, thus, basic educational services in prison are advocated. Other advocates of education as a strategy for the reduction of recidivism contend that several educational options should be make available, depending upon an individual prisoner's educational needs (Stevens, 1998).

Harer, M. D. (1994, March 10). Recidivism among federal prisoners in 1987. cap: Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Texas Association of X-Offenders, Inc. (1999). Mission. Bryan, Texas: Texas Association of X-Offenders, Inc. Retrieved from the net 2000-03-12 at: http://www.xoffenders.org. mission.html

Harer, M. D. (1994, March 10). Recidivism among federal prisoners in 1987. Washington: Federal Bureau of Prisons.

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