Washington – About 1,600 people get out of prison every day, and more than half are back within three years – a problem researchers say might be reduced if offenders got more help right after release.
The National Research Council is proposing a redesign of parole systems to test the value of concentrating resources when people are first returned to the community, a time when they are most likely to commit new crimes and when they also have a high death rate.
“That period right after release is riskiest, both for the former inmate and for the community,” said Richard Rosenfeld, co-chairman of the committee that prepared Tuesday’s report by the council.
The committee urged an experiment in which a concentration of services is provided in some places and not others, to determine the effect, said Rosenfeld, of the department of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. The recommendations included intensive and detailed counseling both before and after release, along with immediate enrollment in drug treatment programs, intense parole supervision and assistance in finding work.
Those who have short criminal records or have committed violent offenses have lower rates of recidivism, the study found, while parolees with long criminal records, or who have committed drug or property crimes, tend to be arrested again.
