Michigan's Successful Strategy to Reduce Recidivism and Prison Populations - Essay Sample

Introduction

Several rehabilitation facilities are tackling the dilemma of reducing the rates of recidivism. While other states such as Michigan have succeeded in decreasing the prison population, the majority of the states are struggling with the ever-increasing numbers (Kyckellan, 2015). The state of Michigan is successful in not only reducing the increasing number of parolees but also managed to shut down some penitentiaries. The state of Michigan, through its Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative, has realized unparalleled victory on the subject of recidivism rates. Through the program, convicts have found various ways and means to migrate and re-entry all the available unknown facilities, and a transition intervention finalized in conjunction with multiple stakeholders like providers of community service.

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Other states are left debating on whether incarceration is the best form of punishment for offenders, and the need to initiate interventions that can assist in opposing recidivism (Lockwood, Nally, Ho, & Knutson, 2012). Educational initiatives within the jail aim at modifying the character of the convicts' conduct to be in-line with the requirement of the law, consequently changing them into beneficial representatives of the society. On the minimum, some suggestions indicate educating convicts to assist them in modifying the habits is a development towards the diminution of recidivism (Price, Martin, & Robertson, 2010). The cause for the establishment of this study is the examination of the effects of prison reformation initiatives and their impact on recidivism rates.

Introduction to the Theoretical Study

Numerous studies extrapolate the significance of recidivism and among the studies; there are several that have indicated a three-year recidivism rate for convicts. This paper looks at the recidivism education program applied in any school across America. It shows how these schools have been performing while implementing one of each of this recidivism. But recidivism rates are not equal in all states though there are claims that prison expenditures are increasing depending on the suitability of one of the recurrences. Therefore, several states are taking concerted and painstaking efforts to focus on what works to reduce correction expenses as well as re-offending cases. As a result, several strategies are in use to facilitate crime reduction and rehabilitation expenses (Haqanee, Peterson-Badali, & Skilling, 2015). The government finds it essential to work closely with communities with high incarceration to reduce them. It costs the government a lot of money in the county's jail system.

Additionally, implementing this program, the government has received much criticism because of its targeted particular community all over the country. The government fired back, claiming high costs of commissary to help prisons purchase useful commodities required by the incarcerated people. The federal government is devising another method of curbing incarceration by introducing recidivism educational programs for people in jail in most cases. The fees levied in prisons are attached to daily prison life, and thus, the inmates have to shoulder the debt or depend on the prison management to offer the essential commodities free of charge (DeFina & Hannon, 2013). This situation is difficult to overcome due to the correctional inability to write off their debt due to lack of investment in the penitentiary department in the government; hence it relies heavily on the country budget, especially the federal budget.

The government is openly investing in the judicial and the prisons to accomplish its goal of decreasing criminality among citizens. Therefore, the public outcry on the use of taxpayers' money has led to the re-evaluation of the prison initiatives' effectiveness in combating crime. Nevertheless, challenges present themselves in the manner in which related data can provide the actual influence of the interventions bearing in mind that the institutions responsible for the rehabilitation of the convicts cannot offer the exact amount spent in the programs (Haqanee et al. 2015). Thus, the study will strive to test the hypothesis that prison initiatives have a remarkable effect on the reduction of the increasing rates of re-offending among young male ex-convicts from minority racial backgrounds.

Research Question: This research paper engages a research question and two sub-questions to examine the decisive role of correctional interventions in the lessening of re-offending rates. Beginning with the main question and followed in succession by the sub-questions, the research question is:

• Does correctional education programs impact recidivism?
• What viewpoint do ex-offenders take regarding the correctional education program and its effect on rehabilitating them?
• Do ex-offenders perceive correctional education as useful in earning post-release occupation and generally decreasing recidivism?

Background of the Study

After much controversy on the subject of the expenses related to operating of jails, especially that emanating from the taxpayers' coffers, the prison authorities have worked on ways to shift the burden to inmates. Currently, most of the penitentiaries in the US can generate income from the convicts (DeFina & Hannon, 2013). A large part of the generated revenue comes from commissary purchases, which include personal items like portable music players, food, toothbrushes, video and telephone calls, and medical services, among other means. Other initiatives permit convicts to work in the society but pay the penitentiaries a percentage of the income earned.

Other sources of revenue generated but which have an insignificant contribution to the income generation are fingerprinting, home detention, drug testing, laundry services, electronic monitoring, and booking fees, among other charges. Work program fees and telephone charges are among the top income earners in the correctional facilities (DeFina & Hannon, 2013). Different rehabilitation facilities have varying rates of costs like the calling charges, initiation fees, and collection of commission from telephone usage. The commission is a result of contracts that the prison management has entered with the telecommunication companies.

Although the correctional facilities have come with means of becoming self-sustainable, the amounts collected are incomparable to the costs associated with running the correctional facilities. The fees levied in prisons are attached to daily prison life, and thus, the inmates have to shoulder the debt or depend on the prison management to offer the essential commodities free of charge (DeFina & Hannon, 2013). While other institutions write off the debts, some are known to employ the services of debt collectors to seek payment from the ex-convicts. There are still some jurisdictions that provide inmates with free hygiene stuff, medical visits, envelopes, and stamps as long as the convicts cannot meet the costs of such items.

Numerous research works have regularly shown that prison educational interventions decrease recidivism rates significantly. Davis, Bahr, and Ward (2013), state that the principal accomplishment of the prison interventions is via the establishment of skills that will offer the released convicts' higher possibilities of landing a job. Statistically, the convicts who undergo the correctional interventions have a higher probability of landing a job compared to convicts who abstain from the initiatives (Brazzel et al., 2009). Some suggestions come with a variety of floats whose visible efforts would bear more positive results if the prison initiatives could come combined with training in vocational skills instead of the provision of academic discipline alone.

There is a consensus that vocational skills are useful in the provision of hands-on experience that lack in academic training. Therefore, an integration of both skillset increases human capital, which is a more significant benefit to the general public. But Davis et al. (2013) argue that there is no evidence to support the most proficient prison intervention in regards to skillset training. Thus, the costs associated with imprisonment, are deemed to decrease with increase in post-release employment and reduction in crime. Hall (2015) is quick to point out that such benefits also lead to a decline in the tension on the convicts' family members and boosts the economic performance remarkably. Conclusively, there is a variety of gains that society enjoys when the justice system uses education and skills training in combating crime.

Notably, there is a limitation on the availability of these services among rehabilitation facilities, even though prison interventions are deemed crucial to the society and the released convicts. The expensive nature of the services offered coupled with lawmakers and politically affiliated people, who believe that non-criminals are shouldering the costs of the free education, makes these services scarce in some rehabilitation centers. Hence, the general budget allotted to rehabilitation facilities has decreased remarkably following the least eligibility principle, where the lowest member of the society should be superior to inmates (Hall, 2015). However, the overall expenditure on jail sentences and the rehabilitation facilities has tremendously increased in contrast to the financing of correctional initiatives like the prison learning initiative has reduced.

Alarming rates accompany an increase in population numbers within the United States in the increment of prisoners, even though the correctional facilities release inmates regularly. Thus, policymakers, as well as scholars, are drawn to the fact that the increasing number of inmates connects with re-offending (Cochran, 2014). The issue has become extremely controversial and, over the years, has led scholars into conducting studies to determine the causal actions leading to prison re-entry and, in the process, find a panacea to the challenge. Among the findings in these numerous researches is the fact that most ex-offenders are facing difficulties in finding or even remaining in employment after their release.

While most of the offenders believe that finding employment after serving their prison terms would go a long way into keeping them away from crime, there is still the troubling fact that most of these inmates are insufficient academically. Furthermore, their prison record has also proven to be a stumbling block as it makes them unbefitting to be employed (Cochran, 2014). Therefore, the improvement of their educational levels during their time in jail seems like a promising solution as it improves their chances of getting employed after their release. Thus, the study will investigate evidence based on the programming of jail education, its impact on post-release jobs as well as the impacts on the rates of recidivism.

The expectation of this research work consists of establishing a correlation between prison education interventions and the rates of recidivism within the United States be established. Therefore, various sources will provide information, for instance, the history of prison education and the evolution of the correctional facilities, concepts related to recidivism, as well as support and opposition to prison education. Numerous researches, in the subject of correctional education, its current state, future projections, as well as the effectiveness of the implementation of the intervention, will guide on the review of such material (Cochran, 2014). Hence, the study will focus on the synthesis of findings of the effectiveness of the reduction of re-offending through correction education, and the mech...