the smedley log - suburban scrawl

How does this affect the recidivism rate?

A lede to feed my irony addiction:
“A man celebrating his release from jail was arrested on a South Shore train for public intoxication and disorderly conduct. …”

While this also tickles my sense of irony, it is not that odd. At my facility we quit releasing people on Fridays, as they invariably provided urine samples that were positive for drugs on the following Monday when they reported to their probation officers. Assuming, of course, that they were “partied out” and actually showed up for their appointments.

Add that to the list of things I’d never considered before.

I’m curious whether or not it counts as recidivism in a statistical sense. Professionally, you’d be a good person to ask, right? Does it matter if a guy was in jail for, say, armed robbery, and then gets nabbed right after his releases for a D&D? Or is it just being back in jail that matters?

I’m actually surprised he did that with his family in tow. I would have thought that even if his wife couldn’t actively stop him, that the prescence of what he was risking would be a deterrant.

I would also wonder how major of a parole violation it was – if it was enough to revoke his release or if his stay would just be related to the offence (although I suspect the former. I would think the idea of parole is to keep SQUEAKY CLEAN)

Aside from the fact that there are very few criminal masterminds out there, most criminals are selfish, self-centered, lack impulse control and refuse to stop and think about the consequences of their actions. Usually, a new arrest (for anything) is sufficient for a parole violation (at least here in Kansas). But, if he was being released from jail (as opposed to prison), it is entirely possible that he was not on parole. Many municipal sentences are just jail time.

As for recidivism, well, that is one of the ugly little secrets of the criminal justice industry. There is no standard definition and most entities I’ve been associated with report recidivism when a person gets put back in their system for a new crime. A parolee who commits a technical violation (like drinking, drugs, or failing to report for appointments) doesn’t get counted as a recidivist.

Unfortunately, if you get out of prison and “off paper” (inmates used to get pieces of paper called parole certificates, so they were “off paper” when they finished their parole) and commit a crime in another state, it often does not get counted as recidivism, as until very recently, there was no reliable way to check these things. National databases are making checking easier, but not foolproof.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most people assume that recidivism statistics are based on the idea that an ex-con stays “squeaky clean” forever. From a statistics gathering standpoint, that is cumbersome at best, so recidivism is almost always defined as a violation within a specific period of time. 5 years is common. I hate to say it, but I occasionally see individuals we worked with 15 to 20 years ago who stayed relatively clean for that amount of time, an then committed a new crime. They don’t normally get counted as recidivists.

The entity I work for is part of a system to divert people from prison. There are actually no official recidivism statistics for our operation. The numbers that we report are based on how many of the people we work with end up going to prison anyway (i.e. how many did we “fail” with).

Also, take it with a grain of salt if you hear someone talking about recidivism increasing. It may be true, but it may be a “benefit” of all the national computerized databases we have to work with making it easier to find out about crimes in other jurisdictions.

Sorry. I probably gave you too much information there.

No, no—believe it or not, I find it kind of interesting to know.

Ditto – it is interesting.

re: recidivism. I also remember from a couple years ago that Philly was trying to reverse a reputation of “downcoding” crimes to keep Philly crime stats artificially low. Since then, when I hear such things, it’s always in the back of my mind that changes in stats COULD just be a change in adherance/nonadherance of recording protocols.