Texans are known for bragging about the Lone Star State, but there is no way that Texas can claim a recidivism rate of 14.7 percent when California’s rate exceeds 60 percent
When I was a California parole agent, the parole revocation rate hovered around 40-50 percent. In recent years, California’s recidivism rate has exceeded 60 percent. For 2010, Texas claimed a parole revocation rate of 14.7 percent, with half returned to prison or state jails for technical parole violations and the other half for new beefs. Those Texas stats lead me to believe that the Texas correctional authorities either do not know how to keep reliable statistics or they are flat out lying about the low number of parolees returned to prison. I think they are humongous liars!
By the end of 2010, California had a recidivism rate of 63.7 percent. The recidivism rates are based on the number of parolees returned to prison within three years after they were paroled. The 2010 rate was somewhat lower than previous rates. I suspect that the recidivism rates will show a significant increase, especially for new beefs, now that Gov. Moonbeam’ realignment program is dumping thousands of prison inmates and parolees onto California’s counties.
MORE PAROLED FELONS STAY CLEAN, BUT REVOLVING DOOR CONTINUES
By Paige St. John
Los Angeles Times
October 29, 2012
The rate of California prisoners committing new crimes after release has continued to drop, according to a report released Monday by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The number of inmates who found themselves back behind bars within three years of release peaked in 2008, at 67.5%. According to Monday's updated report, just 63.7% of adults paroled in 2007 were found guilty of new crimes by 2010. That means that out of 116,000 inmates paroled, more than 75,000 committed new felony crimes that put them back in state prison. Data for more recent years were not available.
The report highlights the severity of the issue of revolving-door criminals in California. The recidivism rate among those with two or more prison stays is more than 75%. More than 16,000 of parolees who committed new felonies had been in CDCR custody 10 times or more.
The majority of those returning to prison did so within a year of release from parole.
The state measures recidivism by counting how many paroled felons return to state custody. Those numbers are bound to drop significantly with realignment, with new criteria for determining parole violations, and because tens of thousands of low-level offenders are now sent to county jails instead of state prison.
Los Angeles County had the lowest recidivism rate of any county in California. Just 54% of its parolees returned to prison. San Francisco County had the highest recidivism rate: almost 78% of parolees went back to prison.
Sex offenders had the highest rate of recidivism, though not for committing new sex-related crimes. Almost 87% of those who returned to prison wound up there because of parole violations. Almost 8% committed some other crime, 3.5% failed to register their address, and fewer than 2% were found guilty of a new sex offense.
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