Recidivism Legislation Could Include Addiction Services January 18, 2005
News Summary
Seeking to cut prison costs by curbing recidivism, Congressional leaders are working on legislation that could provide grants for delivering healthcare and other services to ex-offenders, the Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 14.The bipartisan effort was bolstered both by the recent Supreme Court ruling against mandatory minimum sentences and a new government report showing that 70 percent of the 650,000 people released from jails and prisons annually commit new crimes during the three years following their release. Annual spending on corrections has skyrocketed in recent years, topping $60 billion in 2002, and the jail and prison population has risen from about 500,000 in 1980 to 2.2 million today.
One bill under discussion is the Second Chance Act, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). "We've got a broken corrections system," said Brownback. "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 Bureau of Justice Statistics, few offenders get the services they need to address problems like addiction, housing, and employment before being released. Of the 75 percent of prisoners with addiction problems, for example, just 10 percent get treatment while incarcerated. Alberto Gonzales, nominated to be attorney general by President Bush, told Congress last week: "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. It's the right thing to do."
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