DOJ Report Shows 83 Percent Recidivism Rate

As the Trump administration tries to advance prison reform, a new Department of Justice report shows a high recidivism rate among state prisoners.

The DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics made public a report that studied recidivism rates of prisoners released from state-level facilities across 30 states in 2005. The findings show that 83 percent of them were arrested at least once during the nine years after they were released.

Other key findings in the report:

• Of the 401,288 state prisoners released in 2005, there were a combined 1,994,000 arrests in the subsequent nine-year period — an average of five arrests per released prisoner.
• 77 percent of prisoners originally incarcerated for drug crimes were re-arrested for non-drug crimes within nine years.
• Of the prisoners re-arrested in the nine years after their release, 82 percent were arrested within their first three years of freedom.
• 40.1 percent of the prisoners released in 2005 were black, 39.7 percent were white, and 17.7 percent were Hispanic.

The Trump administration is in the midst of a prison reform effort that aims to reduce recidivism rates and help former inmates better integrate back into society.

The effort, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, led to the resignation of Bureau of Prisons Director Mark Inch. The retired Army major general reportedly felt he was being left out of the discussions and decided to step aside.

• Trump Calls for Prison Reform
• White House Outlines Prison Reform Goals