Recession Sends Ex-Convicts Back to the Streets

New York prison focuses on re-entry

Attica

State budgets have fallen on hard times, which means states have less money for everything, including prisons. At Attica prison in New York, that has meant many convicts are being released after serving only minimum sentences.

But the efforts to save money have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  People who run programs that prepare prisoners for society after incarceration have realized that programs like that and rehabilitation efforts save a lot of money.

Reducing recidivism

Keeping a person in jail for a year costs $40,000. It used to be that most of the prisoners were not there for their first time. Before states started running programs that helped treat people with drug addictions and helped prisoners get ready to be back in society, inmates were basically given a bus pass and tossed out on the streets. There was more of a chance that they would return than that they’d stay out. Surviving in society takes quite a bit of money, and prisoners are more likely to re-offend than they are to jobs or personal loans.

Changing laws

The New York legislature is working on changing some laws that have kept drug users in prison for years. Other states, including Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina, are either releasing some prisoners who have served their minimum time or putting drug offenders in treatment programs instead of prison.

Without re-entry and rehabilitation programs, two-thirds of inmates return to prison. Half of those that return do so because of technical violations, like breaking parole. The system usually only has enough money to detect violations, not to help people who have drug relapses.

A good investment

Now states are discovering that investing money in helping prepare prisoners to return to society saves a lot more in the long run. New York has invested in opening a number of specialized re-entry units. The units are closer to residential neighborhoods, whereas Attica is an eight-hour drive from New York City, where most of the inmates live.

In the new re-entry units, inmates spend the last three to four months of their sentences meeting with state and community social-service agencies to help line up housing, jobs and drug-rehab programs. State officials are hoping that their efforts will allow them to eventually shut down one of their prisons. So far the prison population in New York has been decreased by more than 10,000.