Pubdate: Fri, 14 Jan 2005
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Page: A4
Copyright: 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Gary Fields, Staff Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/recidivism
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

CONGRESS PREPARES TO TACKLE PRISONER RECIDIVISM

Lawmakers Plan for Bipartisan Measures After Report Offers Advice For
Overhaul

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers from both parties, concerned about high
recidivism and the costs it imposes on society, are expected to soon
introduce legislation aimed at helping ex-convicts stay on the
straight and narrow when they leave prison.

The effort will get a boost from the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday
that declared federal sentencing guidelines are only advisory. Though
the decision will spur a battle in Congress over mandating sentences
versus giving judges more discretion, leaders in both parties support
sound programs that prevent ex-offenders from slipping back into crime.

Yesterday, a sweeping government-funded report outlined a series of
recommendations to overhaul prisoner re-entry. According to the
report, of the 650,000 people released annually from state and federal
prisons, 70% will commit new crimes within three years.

If the Supreme Court ruling results in prison sentences getting
shorter, "people will be put back on the streets sooner and that makes
prisoner re-entry services even more important," says Rep. Rob
Portman, an Ohio Republican. If penalties get tougher, he says, "then
you have people who will be disconnected from society who will need
re-entry services even more."

Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, plans to reintroduce the
Second Chance Act, a bill that had the support of several influential
Republican and Democratic lawmakers last summer but didn't get to a
full committee vote as Congress focused on spending and intelligence
bills.

"We've got a broken corrections system," Sen. Brownback says. "It
needs to be reinvented, much as we found with welfare in the 1990s.
Recidivism rates are too high and create too much of a financial
burden on states without protecting public safety."

According to the report compiled by the Re-Entry Policy Council,
spending on corrections has increased more than any other major
spending category in the last 15 years, with the exception of
health-care costs. U.S. taxpayers spent $60 billion on corrections in
2002, up from $9 billion two decades before. The council is comprised
of a range of national associations; its report received funding from
the U.S. departments of Justice, Labor and Health and Human Services
and coordinated by the Council of State Governments.

Should recidivism rates remain high, the cost could continue to rise
dramatically as prisons open their doors to populations that have been
boosted by the mandatory minimum sentences and tougher guidelines
penalties. The nation's jail and prison population has risen to 2.2
million from 501,886 in 1980, according to the Bureau of Justice
Statistics. Annual criminal-justice expenditures for police, prisons,
probation and courts have risen to $167 billion from $36 billion in
1982.

The 678-page report says that the vast majority of offenders returning
from federal and state prisons aren't receiving the help they need
before their release from prison to address the problems they have.

The issue even arose last week during the confirmation hearing of
Alberto Gonzales, who has been nominated to be attorney general. When
several senators expressed a need for establishing re-entry programs
that cut recidivism and incarceration rates, Mr. Gonzales agreed. "I
think that we have an obligation to provide some kind of support
structure, to provide some kind of training to people that are coming
out of prison," he said. "It's the right thing to do."

Congressional staffers say support still is strong for grants to
programs dealing with issues like postrelease housing, health
services, education and job training. Under legislation that has been
discussed, employers would be educated on incentives available if they
hire ex-offenders. In addition, Congress would study how various state
regulations would affect the children of incarcerated parents.

Among the report's key recommendations: identify where released
prisoners are returning, because they often return to specific
neighborhoods where services can be concentrated; identify funds that
can be used for reintegration programs; and develop a plan for each
prisoner providing specific services during incarceration that will
make the transition home more successful.

Mike Thompson, director of criminal-justice programs at the Council of
State Governments, says the report and the bipartisan cooperation are
an acknowledgment that after years of building more prisons and
locking up more people, everyone has concluded "we're spending good
money after bad" without lowering the recidivism rate.

Although 75% of those released from incarceration have substance-abuse
problems, only 10% of them get formal treatment prior to release.
Ex-convicts also face considerable hurdles in obtaining identification
or getting state licenses in occupations for which training is offered
in prison.

Rep. Danny Davis, an Illinois Democrat, says that in his district
ex-offenders are prohibited from living in public housing, which means
they often can't return to their families. Nearly 60 job titles
licensed by the state, such as barber, require ex-offenders to get
waivers and "getting a waiver is similar to trying to get something
expunged," he says.

And getting the waiver may not be enough. Rep. Davis recalled a man
trained in prison as a barber who had gotten a license waiver and
found someone willing to hire him, but he didn't have the money for
his barbering tools. Mr. Davis says he gave him the money out of his
pocket. "To my vindication, the brother came back with my change and
the receipts for what he'd bought," Mr. Davis said.

One state that is being held up as a possible model is Kansas. That
state's secretary of corrections, Roger Werholtz, says Kansas is in
the second year of a pilot project in Shawnee County, where the state
capitol is located. It includes identifying inmates a year prior to
release and developing a re-entry program that focuses on where
ex-convicts will live, what jobs they might be trained to pursue and
what employers in their neighborhoods might be interested in hiring
them.

"Most of the guys come out with good intentions and high hopes, but
ill-equipped to deal with not just the routine barriers that you and I
would face but all the additional barriers that are put in place
because of their criminal history," he says.

Although it is too early to have firm statistics, Mr. Werholtz said
anecdotal evidence suggests the trend towards reoffending is being
reversed. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake