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Saturday, July 3, 2021

Repeat Offenders

Most crimes are committed by repeat offenders often arrested but rarely imprisoned…Among that small percentage of hardened, repeat offenders who are apprehended, convicted, and imprisoned, few will spend very long under lock and key. And within a short time after release on parole, most resume their criminal careers. Proof of this lies in many studies showing that paroled inmates have high rates of "recidivism" (or relapse into crime). Depending on how recidivism is measured, fully a third to half of all paroled inmates are returned to prison within a year or two--and this despite the very low chance of being arrested for any of their subsequent crimes. As every criminal knows, the "criminal justice system" is a sham.

Robert James Bidinotto, Criminal Justice?, 1994 

2 comments:

  1. Felons don't have a lot of employment opportunities and if they don't have a support system or know someone willing to take a chance to employ them, they have to find a way to survive which is usually illegal activity. People make mistakes and as long as society doesn't allow them a second chance, prison will continue to be a revolving door,

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  2. It is not that simple sir or madam. So often those incarcerated have not done the difficult emotional work of figuring out where they went wrong or taking responsibility for their crimes. Patterns of behavior don't just disappear. They must be addressed and reversed. New modes of behavior need to be practiced until new habits are formed. There are many classes which prisons offer such as anger management, AA or classes on family dynamics to help people change their behavior.

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