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ACLU-Indiana presents a “First Wednesday” debate.

When: Wednesday November 7, noon to 1:00 PM
Where: Indiana Historical Society

Debate moderated by Matthew Tully of the Indianapolis Star. The First Wednesdays series is sponsored by the NUVO Social Justice Series 2007.

This is a crisis that goes beyond simplistic arguments of whether we have whacked bad people long enough and hard enough. Said President Bush in his 2004 State of the Union address: “This year, some 600,000 inmates will bereleased from prison back into society. We know from long experience that if they can’t find work, or a home, or help, they are much more likely to commit crime and return to prison….America is the land of second chance, and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.”

Look at the numbers:

• Nearly 650,000 people are released from prison to communities nationwide each year, and even more come back from county jails.
• Today, an estimated two-thirds of men and women leaving prison will be re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years of release.
• Such high recidivism rates translate into thousands of new crimes each year, at least half of which can be averted through improved prisoner reentry efforts.
• Most people (70-80%) coming home from prison or jail have histories of drug or alcohol dependence.
• It is estimated that as many as 84% were under the influence of drugs/alcohol at the time of the offense.
• Significant portions of state and local government budgets are now invested in the criminal justice system. Incarceration costs, on average, $22,650 a year per person, with some states spending as much as $44,000.
• According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, expenditures on corrections alone increased from $9 billion in 1982 to $44 billion in1997.
• The Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that, “the best [reentry] programs can be expected to deliver 20% to 30%reductions in recidivism or crime rates” and that “programs that can deliver – at a reasonable program cost – even modestreductions in future criminality can have an attractive economic bottom line.”
• In 1991, 900,000 children had at least one incarcerated parent; today there are two million kids with at least one incarcerated parent (an increase of more than 100%) and 10 million who have had a parent imprisoned.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 12:52 am and is filed under Events, Law & justice, Human and civil rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.