The American criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 901 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails,76 Indian Country jails, military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories. We go deeper to provide further detail on why people are locked up in all of these different types of facilities.
Piecing together this country’s disparate systems of confinement, Coach Toni’s mission is to reduce the prison statistics by preventing and reducing the damage caused by crime and incarceration.
- What is Recidivism?
For purposes of this study, recidivism is defined as any of the following criminal record events occurring within a three-year period following release from incarceration:
- A re-conviction for a new offense
- A re-arrest with no case disposition information available. A violation or revocation of an offender’s supervised release.
- In other words recidivism events include all reports of :
- Arrests for new crimes that did not result in acquittal or dismissal of all charges.court or supervision violations that resulted in court action reported on criminal history records.
- All recidivism events within a three-year period after release were counted, including felonies, misdemeanors, and court and supervision violations, but minor traffic offenses were excluded.
- The Commission used a follow-up period of three years for this study, a length of time sufficient to answer the question of whether retroactive application of the FSA Guideline Amendment increased the risk of recidivism.
- This report focuses on the time from release until the first recidivism event for offenders who did recidivate within three years.
- Studying the timing of recidivism can help in understanding the process of desistance, as some offenders may be able to remain in the community for a considerable time before recidivating, while others recidivate very quickly.
Brief Statistics
Recidivism by Offender Characteristics
The Commission also examined the recidivism rates for offenders in the two groups in light of several offender characteristics. For example, recidivism rates for the several demographic groups of offenders in this study were similar in both groups. Black offenders, who accounted for 85.5 percent of offenders in the study, had recidivism rates of 38.7 percent in the FSA Retroactivity Group and 38.9 percent in the Comparison Group. White offenders, the next most numerous racial group at 7.1 percent, had recidivism rates of 34.0 percent in the FSA Retroactivity Group and 33.5 percent in the Comparison Group.
The journey begins NOW because you have support. YOU don’t have to do it alone!