The justice system traditionally uses a simple metric to determine whether an individual continues to be a threat to public safety after leaving prison: has the person been arrested for another crime?
Recidivism rates are also used as criteria for judging the success of intervention programs and policy reforms.
But a University of Wisconsin Law School professor argues that in both cases, the system too often gets it wrong.
Prof. Cecilia M. Klingele. Photo courtesy University of Wisconsin
In a recent essay for the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Cecilia M. Klingele suggested that recidivism rates produce a “one-dimensional” picture that not only skews the decisions of judges and parole boards, but prevents the development of effective policies that can reduce mass incarceration.
“Klingele called on policymakers and private donors to stop using recidivism as their sole criteria…”
That’s funny. I wish they’d START looking at recidivism rates.