An insane amount of crime is caused by the same people, over and over and over. In fact, 1% of the population is responsible for 63% of all violent crimes. They commit crimes over and over and over. So part of me is, like, the heck with them. Keep tight tabs on that one percent and eliminate 63% of all crimes in your town. That's a big hunk of the problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3969807/
Although I don't have the statistics, maybe the top 5% of people commit 80% of the crimes.
Why should the police patrol the citizens who are NOT committing crimes? Why SHOULDN'T the police focus on those people?
I mean, I get what people are saying here, but maybe they don't understand the statistics of crime.
There's about an 80% chance that a person committing a crime will commit one in the future - the recidivism rate.
The one thing that DOES help is education. This has been proven, because with education, one has more choices. The percentage of people in prison, jails, penitentiaries who have a university degree is 2-4%, while those with high school degree or less commit 96-98% of the crimes. Therefore, having a university education is a good thing. By no means am I saying that only having a high school degree or lower is a bad thing, I'm just saying that of those who end up in prison, they don't.
When you look at the statistics of former inmates who received degrees in prison, the recidivism rate drastically lowers for each level of education.
For example, in New York, over 21 years, Hudson Link has awarded 700 degrees in collaboration with eight colleges and five prisons. The organization reports a recidivism rate of less than 2 percent.
Wow! Stunning!
Since 2007, Tulsa Community College has awarded approximately 500 associate’s degrees and certificates to incarcerated students. These students have recidivated at a rate of only 5 percent.
How cool is this?!
Chemeketa Community College has operated a college program in prison since 2007. The recidivism rate among its 256 graduates is just 6 percent. In 2018, 42 students graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.8.
Yet again.
That is why I think all prisons should should offer educational degree programs, AND give the inmates significant time off their sentence for completing each level of education - a% for an associates degree, b% for a bachelors, c% for a Masters, and d% off for a PhD. So if someone is sentenced to 30 years, maybe they can get out in 25 years for an associates degree, 18 years for a bachelors, 13 years for a masters, and 7 years for a PhD. If someone gets a PhD and never commits a crime again...that is a total win.
I'm not saying people with horrible crimes should be let out. But even they could take part, because they still benefit and can become mentors.
I mean, it's not like they have other things to do while in prison. We are already paying for their room and board.