Essay: Incarceration and Recidivism

1.1 Introduction
The human condition insists that every society possessing laws must be able to levy punishments on those who break them, lest society give way to anarchy. In the 21st century, the preferred punishment for lawbreakers is to put them in prison, which the Oxford English Dictionary says is a place of forcible confinement where people are incarcerated as a result of committing a crime. (OED)
The straightforwardness of that definition belies the controversy that swirls around prisons, as statesmen and citizens debate everything from what crimes should require incarceration, what qualities a prison should have, to whether or not the goal of prison is to punish or to reform. These debates are important, for society’s aforementioned preference for prisons runs deep. There are currently around 8.75 million people incarcerated, and the United States, the focus of this Solution-Oriented-Analysis, is the country with both the highest rate of prisoners per 100,000 people, 686, and the highest total number of prisoners, approximately 1,962,220. (Walmsley 65-66) As the population of incarcerated people increases, so will the magnitude of issues surrounding it.
1.2 The Issue at Hand
A major issue of incarceration in the United States is recidivism, where prisoners are released back into society only to commit another crime and be put in prison all over again. This happens at high rates, with the total recidivism rate for recently released inmates being 29.9%, 44.1%, 59.2%, and 67.5% at the 6 month, 1 year, 2 years, and 3-year anniversary of their release. (Langan and Levin 2002) Recidivism is a problem for several reasons.
1.3 The Price of Incarcerating Someone
The cost of imprisoning someone in the US is very high. States have to pay for building and maintaining prisons as well as utilities such as hot water, gas, and electricity, the salaries, tools, and weapons of the thousands of corrections workers all over the country, from janitors to guards to wardens, food, medical care (especially for aging inmates, for which there are many increased costs, as they suffer from the same diseases as the elderly population but at an even higher rate (Zimbardo 1994)) and shelter for the prisoners as well as any amenities they might have such as a library, sports facilities, or educational programs. Thus, incarceration costs states 51.1 billion dollars in 2010, 7.3 percent of general fund spending. (NASBO 2010) This is a burden on taxpayers, and one compounded by prisoners not being able to work and thus paying next to nothing in taxes, in most cases. Thus, people committing new crimes and returning to prison increases the overall population incarcerated and adds to the bill that the government must foot.
1.4 The Damage of Incarceration to Inmates, their Communities, and their Families
Imprisonment has severe and lasting economic, social, and physical impacts on the lives of prisoners and their loved ones. A study conducted over six months in an American prison showed 20% of all prisoners met with some sort of physical violence over a 6-month period, while 50% of male prisoners said they needed to carry around a shank for daily protection. (Wolff 2007) People in prison suffer assault by staff, overcrowding, theft, and sexual victimization at high rates, an issue compounded by lack of oversight and data collection. (Gibbons 2006) Furthermore, released prisoners are often unable to find employment, thus compounding recidivism. Only 30% of that group were able to find legal employment in a recent study. (Vishner, Debus, Yahner 2008) Incarceration also is detrimental to the prospects of the families and children of prisoners. Children often suffer from school problems and anger issues after the incarceration of parents, and babies born to prisoners are often unable to form the developmentally crucial attachment to their mother, as they are taken away within days. (Parke and Stewart, 2002) In 2000, there were 2.1 million American children whose father was in prison. This also creates terrible situations for whichever parent must take care of the children on their own, and often results in divorce. (Western and Lopoo 2004) Therefore, imprisonment (and thus inherently recidivism) ought to be avoided for the damage to incarcerees and their families.
1.5 Crime’s Cost to Communities
Recidivism means that people who have supposedly paid their debts to society have committed new offenses. While it is important to keep the lives of prisoners in mind in order to provide options that reduce crime, it is also necessary to take into account the impact of crime itself on the country. A National Institute of Health Report called “The Cost of Crime to Society: New Crime-Specific Estimates for Policy and Program Evaluation” gives four components of their accounting of said issue. “Victim costs” are tangible financial costs to subjects of a crime such as the price of healthcare and damage to property. “Criminal justice system costs” are what it takes to keep the policing, judgement, and incarceration system up and running. “Crime career costs” are the accounting of the loss of potential earnings from legitimate work that criminals could have done. Finally, “Intangible costs” include the psychological and personal damage to victims of crime.