Two-Thirds of Former State Prisoners Rearrested for Serious New Crimes

Two-Thirds of Former State Prisoners Rearrested for Serious New
Crimes
To: National Desk
Contact: U.S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS),
202-307-0784; stu@ojp.usdoj.gov
After hours contact: Stu Smith, 301-983-9354, stu219@hotmail.com

WASHINGTON, June 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Sixty-seven
percent of former inmates released from state prisons in 1994
committed at least one serious new crime within the following three
years, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
announced today. This was a rearrest rate 5 percent higher than
that among prisoners released during 1983.

State prisoners with the highest rearrest rates were those who
had been incarcerated for stealing motor vehicles (79 percent),
possessing or selling stolen property (77 percent), larceny (75
percent), burglary (74 percent), robbery (70 percent) or those
using, possessing or trafficking in illegal weapons (70 percent).

Those with the lowest rearrest rates were former inmates who had
been in prison for homicide (41 percent), sexual assault (41
percent), rape (46 percent) or driving under the influence of drugs
or alcohol (51 percent).

About 1 percent of the released prisoners who had served time
for murder were arrested for another homicide within three years,
and about 2 percent of the rapists were arrested for another rape
within that period.

Within three years, 52 percent of the 272,111 released prisoners
were back in prison either because of a new crime or because they
had violated their parole conditions (e.g., failed a drug test,
missed a parole office appointment).

Men were more likely to be rearrested than were women (68
percent, compared to 58 percent), blacks more likely than whites
(73 percent vs. 63 percent) and non-Hispanics more than Hispanics
(71 percent vs. 65 percent). Younger prisoners and those with
longer records were also more likely to be rearrested.

Post-prison recidivism was strongly related to arrest history.
Among prisoners with one arrest prior to their release, 41 percent
were rearrested. Of those with two prior arrests, 47 percent were
rearrested. Of those with three earlier arrests, 55 percent were
rearrested. Among those with more than 15 prior arrests, that is
about 18 percent of all released prisoners, 82 percent were
rearrested within the three-year period.

The 272,111 inmates had accumulated more than 4.1 million arrest
charges prior to their current imprisonment and acquired an
additional 744,000 arrest charges in the 3 years following their
discharge in 1994 -- an average of about 18 criminal arrest charges
per offender during their criminal careers. These charges included
almost 21,000 homicides, 200,000 robberies, 50,000 rapes and sexual
assaults and almost 300,000 assaults.

Almost 8 percent of all released prisoners were rearrested for
a new crime in a state other than the one that released them. These
alleged offenders were charged with committing 55,760 new crimes in
states other than the imprisoning state within the three-year
period. New York, Arizona, and California had the most arrests of
out-of-state offenders in this study.

The data were from the largest recidivism study ever conducted
in the United States, which tracked prisoners discharged in 15
states representing two-thirds of all state prisoners released in
1994. They were 91 percent male, 50 percent white, 48 percent
black, 24 percent Hispanic (of any race) and 44 percent were
younger than 30 years old.

Most of them had been in prison for felonies: 22 percent for a
violent offense (such as murder, rape, sexual assault or robbery),
33 percent for a serious property offense (mostly burglary, motor
vehicle theft or fraud), 33 percent for a drug offense (primarily
drug trafficking or possession) and 10 percent for public order
offenses (mainly drunk driving or weapons crimes).

Most former convicts were rearrested shortly after getting out
of prison: 30 percent within six months, 44 percent within a year,
59 percent within two years and 67 percent by the end of three
years.

The study findings are based upon the prison and criminal
records of an estimated 272,111 discharged prisoners in 15 states
who were tracked through fingerprints records made at various
points of contact with the justice system, both within the state in
which they had served time and other states to which they traveled.

The BJS special report, "Recidivism of Prisoners Released in
1994" (NCJ-193427) was written by BJS statisticians Patrick A.
Langan and David J. Levin. Single copies may be obtained by calling
the BJS Clearinghouse at 800-732-3277. After the release date, this
document can be accessed at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/rpr94.

For further information about the Bureau of Justice Statistics
and other OJP programs, see the OJP Web site at:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov

These stats do not show how many went on to commit new crimes for which they weren't caught. How many crimes go unsolved, and how many of these are done by career criminals?

Of course not. That can't be why Jesse Jackson and Company are insisting on early releases...

4 posted on 06/03/2002 9:50:40 PM PDT by goldstategop

"The tendency to commit major crimes after being released from prison has NOTHING to do with race, I tell you, NOTHING to do with race."

The highest correlation between personal characteristics and criminal behavior is literacy.

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