The program allows inmates to integrate more gradually into their life post-incarceration. The UK temporarily releases prisoners, especially as they near the end of their sentence, for work, education, to sleep at their post-incarceration residence or to spend time with their child(ren). However, temporary prison release doesn’t need to end with work releases. Over two decades, it has allowed over 10,000 inmates to hold jobs in the community during their sentence, reducing recidivism in the state by helping inmates maintain employment after prison. Utah county has the largest jail industries program in the nation. Introducing A Broader Temporary Release Program If we want a justice system that reduces crime, we need to focus our efforts on rehabilitation rather than punishment. When ex-cons reoffend, it contributes to crime and creates new victims. Not only that, recidivism reduces public safety. Equal opportunity, a key part of the American dream, is destroyed in the process. When our justice system fails to rehabilitate inmates, we reinforce the racial and economic social inequalities that exist. The United Nations says “the rehabilitation of offenders and their successful social reintegration into society should be among the basic objectives of criminal justice systems.” They lay out that guideline for good reason. Limited statistics on the cost of reconvictions make it hard to know the dollars we spend on recidivism, but we do know that prosecuting and housing prisoners is expensive. In Utah, 46% of inmates return to jail within three years. In 2017, each reconviction cost Illinois $151,662. Recidivism can cost states a lot of money. In the U.S., 67.8% of ex-offenders are rearrested within three years and 76.6% within five years. With few resources for reintegration and many barriers to employment and housing, prisoners often turn back to crime, contributing to high recidivism. Our system punishes them even after they’ve paid the debt of their sentence. They have no access to the American dream. They don’t have the option to work harder for success because they can’t work, they can’t find housing and they don’t have the skills to navigate the society they are released into. The barriers prisoners face post-incarceration are huge.
EX CONS SHOCKED AT THE WORLD AFTER LONG PRISON SENTENSES HOW TO
We release inmates into an unfamiliar environment with technology they don’t know how to use. Another former Utah prisoner, Matthew Holman, told me about how some of his friends left prison and didn’t know how to use Google. If an inmate has no family or friends to fall back on, even $200 will not get them very far, setting them up for failure the minute they leave.įormer prisoners also face the barrier of a world that changed while they were behind bars. Most states offer gate money sums, ranging from as little as $10 to $200 at the highest end. But if they had even $10 or $20 in their account, the prison would not give them $100. Montero explained that when he transitioned out of prison, Utah policy allowed prisoners to receive $100 of “gate money” to walk away with if they had no money in their account. Housing, too, can be difficult to find as some public housing and housing vouchers are off-limits, parole restrictions can limit where they’re allowed to live and many landlords are wary of renting to former prisoners. Employers are reluctant to hire ex-cons - only 12.5% of employers will accept an application from a former prisoner. Prisoners face many barriers when they leave prison. Utah and the United States should expand its prison release programs as a first step toward lower recidivism and a more rehabilitative system. Countries like the UK have expanded temporary work releases further to help rehabilitate inmates, resulting in lower recidivism and higher employment success for ex-prisoners. Temporary work release has been linked to post-incarceration success in Utah. However, leaving ex-cons without support creates higher recidivism rates, something that affects all of us. As Edgar Montero, a former Utah prisoner, told me, prison punishes prisoners “every day of their sentence.” Most Americans are happy to see that punishment continue after a jail term ends, which may explain why there is a severe lack of resources to help prisoners adjust to the outside world after incarceration. The United States has the highest incarceration rate and prison population in the world, with 2.3 million people confined nationwide.
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