I am very interested in the concepts of prisoner recidivism and particularly in re-entry.  With more than 630,000 individuals released from state and federal prisons a year, a lot of attention is being paid to re-entry issues.  In particular, a number of faith-based organizations are taking the lead in this area.  A few weeks ago, I blogged about a new report by the Legal Action Center which created scorecards for each state based on the number of barriers that returning prisoners face. 

I have been interested in comparing recidivism rates between states.  This is a difficult task because each state defines recidivism differently and measures it in its own way.  On average, national recidivism rates for men are 37.8% and for women 29.3%. I was able to find recidivism rates for most U.S. states.  In this blog post, I am particularly interested in identifying states with over 50% recidivism.  

These numbers have important public policy implications and suggest that certain states are doing a terrible job of ensuring the successful reintegration of former prisoners.  Additionally in every case, female prisoners recidivate at a lower rate than male prisoners.  What accounts for this phenomenon?  What can we learn from former female prisoners about their successful integration into their communities that might be applied to male prisoners?

Didn’t see your state represented in the chart? In the next couple of days, I hope to feature recidivism rates for other states that fall under the 50% target.