How to Reduce Recidivism

Nearly everyone sent to prison will one day return to the community. This means that understanding recidivism is of critical importance to members of that community. At the most basic level, recidivism can be defined as “the reversion of an individual to criminal behavior after he or she has been convicted of a prior offense, sentenced, and (presumably) corrected.” Recidivism therefore requires that some sort of involvement with the criminal justice system has taken place, and that then the individual again comes into contact with the system after additional transgressions. Recidivism, in other words, is officially detected, repeat unlawful behavior.

Prison Communities

This chapter will examine the prison as a community. This enclosed community is a place for the incarceration of criminals tried in the courts. It is also a workplace for corrections officers, and a microcosm of wider society, with work related and prison related relationships developing within the institution's walls. The chapter examines these themes from the perspective of the corrections officer, a perspective not always discussed in penological literature, or understood in wider society. The focus of literature rarely involves discussion on prisons as places of work, or in terms of the individuals for which society invests the care of its incarcerated. The study of the history of imprisonment and prisons and its sociological implications is significant but outside the scope of this work.

Sanctuary?

Influenced by critical carceral studies and abolition feminism, this non-empirical work identifies a political, social and economic carceral system that is fueled by existing racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, ableist and xenophobic ideologies, which both minimize resources for Latinx/a women and girls and increases the level of state violence perpetrated against them. The consequences of dispossession, subjugation and stigmatization have impacted Latina/x women's access to livable waged jobs, healthcare, safe and healthy food and water, adequate living conditions, quality education, and acceptance in American society. This violence is justified and considered necessary by constructing Latina/x women and girls as unworthy of state protection and state resource and as threats to the economy, culture and politics of the United States. Latina/x women, like other women of color, are not afforded the protections extended to white women by the state. Many Americans do not see them as the “good victim”, but often they are the “bad woman”, “bad mother”, “sexual deviant”, exploited laborer, culturally defiant, and increasingly they are “illegal”, “criminal” and “terrorist”. This results in Latinx/a women and girls being more likely to be imprisoned than white women and are one of the fastest growing prison populations in the United States.

Resisting the New Punitiveness

This chapter builds on PhD research into the penal policies of Nordic countries and in particular Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Essentially, the investigation asked whether the increase in punitiveness in relation to prison systems that is presumed to occur under the ‘culture of control' of late modernity can be found in these countries. The scale of imprisonment, the ‘depth' of imprisonment, and the perception of the person imprisoned were all examined. The prison systems were investigated through analysis of documentation and recorded interviews with key personnel, supplemented by visits to a representative range of prisons. While there have at times been some signs of ‘new punitiveness', especially in Denmark and Norway, in general it can be said that none of the Nordic countries have followed the path predicted by Garland.

The Causes Behind the Cause

Transgenders in Bangladesh are the most vulnerable group of people. This group of people are socially excluded and considered as deviant since British colonialism. The purpose of this study is to understand why they are considered as deviant as well as the reason of their deviant behavior and what are the acts done by them. Due to the importance of a few statements, in this chapter, “transgender” and “Hijra” are used and defined well. The difference between these two terms is clarified at the end of the chapter's literature review.

Deportation as Deterrence?

This chapter interrogates the impacts of mass deportation for people recently removed from the U.S. to Mexico. It draws from a novel survey conducted in 2018 with 128 individuals at a migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico to assess factors impacting intentions to re-migrate the U.S. after removal. Far from deportation preventing remigration to the U.S., the authors found most individuals planned to return to the U.S. at some point. The number of deportations a person experienced did not influence their future migratory plans. Rather, individuals were motivated to attempt another migration based on the location of their subjective belonging, family ties, and nature of their interactions with the U.S. legal system prior to deportation. These findings contribute to research suggesting that migratory decisions are socially embedded, opening up new areas for research on the impact of institutional processes on re-migration plans.

Restorative Justice as an “Informal” Alternative to “Formal” Court Processes

This chapter will examine the manner in which restorative justice provides an informal alternative to the formal processes of the adversarial court within the criminal justice system overall. In so doing, the chapter highlights the significance of restorative justice as a facet of a ‘Sustainable Justice' within the community. While members of the public may be intimidated by the formal processes of the court system, the informal nature of the restorative justice conference may provide the community with a better exchange, and thereby see true justice served more fully.

Prisoner Re-Entry and Desistance

Prisoner reentry is a concept that examines the reality faced by formerly incarcerated men and women upon their release from a correction facility. A primary concern from the perspective of institutions within the criminal justice system is whether formerly incarcerated men or women return to prison. Re-incarceration is a signal that the institution has failed at rehabilitating the former convict, as well as signal of personal failure on the part of the ex-con. Prisoner reentry is much more complex than the idea of reincarceration after release from prison lets on. There is an abundance of research on the reentry experience. This chapter reviews some important findings relevant to our understanding of the prisoner reentry experience.

Prisoner Re-Entry

This chapter is part of an ongoing research book project that examines the realities of mass incarceration in Arizona through the intimate stories of the mothers, sisters, wives, and lovers left behind by incarceration. It is designed to use a narrative approach to give the reader an intimate and personal reflection on what in criminal justice we call re-entry but what to the individuals involved is just “coming home.” While it provides a general overview of the formal re-entry process, it is not designed as an academic exploration of that topic.

Carceral Trauma at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender

This chapter will provide a firsthand analysis of one woman's journey through the prison industrial complex. The intent is to bring the readers proximate to how trauma intersects with incarceration, gender, and race. The goal is to challenge our criminal justice system's need to over-criminalize and over-incarcerate women at alarming rates. Since 1980 the number of women in United States prisons has increased by more than 700%. These rates of incarceration of women have outpaced men by more than 50%. By drawing upon lived experience interacting with the United States Criminal Justice System and empirical data, the author will provide evidence that will argue that the experience of being incarcerated is traumatic and dehumanizing for many, but even more counterproductive for women.