Although the prison population in the United States had been on a slow and steady rise since the beginning of its history, it did not really take off until the 1960s and 1970s. This is when politicians from both parties began to push the idea of ‘law and order’ and harsher sentencing for less offensive crimes, especially drug crimes. Nixon especially pushed this narrative by beginning the ‘war on drugs’ and Reagan by continuing it. By the end of the Reagan administration, the prison population in the United States had essentially doubled with a disproportionate number of the incarcerated population being people of color.
In the United States, 70% of the people who are released from prison will be arrested again within 5 years. This statistic is staggeringly high, especially when you take into consideration just how large of a prison population the United States has, with only 5% of the world population yet 25% of the prisoners. There are many different reasons for the high rate of recidivism in the United States.
One of these reasons is that the United States places an emphasis on punishment rather than rehabilitation. When released from prison, most are not equipped to thrive in the outside world. They struggle to get jobs because of their previous convictions, they struggle to find housing, and many have been ostracized from their communities. Without the support they need to reenter society, people are much more likely to reoffend.
Education also plays a big role in recidivism. Typically, people who enter the criminal justice system have a lower level of education: 18% of the general population has no high school diploma compared with 41% of those incarcerated. This makes it even harder to attain a job when released from prison. To make matters worse, there are typically not many resources available for those in prison to further their educations.
Not only is there no support once people are released from prison, but there is a lack of resources for people currently incarcerated. Around 15-20% of people in prisons suffer from a mental illness. Although many prisons over the past decade have attempted to implement more services that would help benefit those who are suffering from mental illness, such as group therapy, there are not enough mental health professionals working in the justice system to sufficiently help with the problem of mental illness in prisons. Without adequate mental health resources, many inmates struggle with high levels of anxiety and other mental health issues. This only worsens a person's ability to successfully reenter society once they are released from prison.
References
Benson, E. (2003). Rehabilitate or punish?. Monitor on Psychology.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab
Deady, C. W. (2014, March). Incarceration and recidivism: Lessons from abroad.
Pell Center. http://www.antoniocasella.eu/nume/Deady_march2014.pdf
Esparza Flores, N. (2018). Contributing factors to mass incarceration and
recidivism. Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science,
6(1). https://doi.org/10.31979/themis.2018.0604
U.S. prison population vs. The World: Statistics and insights. Background
Checks.org. (2019, May 5). https://backgroundchecks.org/us-prison-population-
vs-the-world.html#Recidivism_rates_in_the_United_States
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