Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2005
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright: 2005 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

LIFE AFTER PRISON

Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder offered some disturbing statistics 
during a speech in Baton Rouge Tuesday. About 80 percent of the people in 
Louisiana's prison system have substance-abuse problems, he said, and the 
average new prisoner reads at a fifth-grade level.

These sad figures won't surprise any criminologist; the connections among 
drug abuse, educational failure and crime are well established. Yet the 
numbers also suggest that there's a lot the state can do to improve 
inmates' prospects for employment upon their release.

About 15,000 inmates leave state prisons every year, and about half of them 
return within five years. That rate needs to come down.

According to the secretary, the department plans to begin evaluating the 
educational needs of each new inmate, and it has launched two new 
faith-based pilot programs geared toward helping prisoners lead more 
productive lives. These initiatives are a start.

Still, Louisiana, which has a higher incarceration rate than most other 
states, needs to focus more intensely on the challenge of preparing inmates 
for their return to society. Louisiana taxpayers spend $567 million per 
year to incarcerate criminals and monitor probation and parole. Less than 1 
percent goes toward rehabilitation, though the department does supplement 
that money with federal grants.

Moreover, the housing of state prisoners at parish jails is an impediment 
to rehabilitating them. "Programming," as it's called in corrections 
jargon, is often minimal in those facilities. While inmates in state 
prisons can take welding classes and hold jobs that involve growing crops 
and cleaning vegetables, inmates in local jails may have little to do but 
sleep and watch TV.

Mr. Stalder recognizes that the state needs to prepare people who leave 
state prisons "to go back to the community, to lead pro-social, law-abiding 
lives." Doing more to help inmates sober up and acquire marketable skills 
will reduce the rate of recidivism -- and make all Louisianians safer.
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