Recidivism
At a time when record numbers of parolees have been released from
prison into our communities,
Illinois
is confronted with the highest recidivism rates in its history of 54
percent. At this rate, it is projected that over one-half of
the 36,000 adult inmates estimated to be released from prison this
year will be reincarcerated within three years after committing a
new crime, finding new victims or violating their parole.
Drugs: A leading
public safety factor in rising recidivism rates. Among the key
contributing factors of recidivism is drug addiction, whether it is
felony possession of drugs, theft to support a drug habit or another
offense or parole violation committed while an offender was under
the influence of drugs. The top three classes of state prison
inmates with the highest recidivism rates are: Property
Offenders at 60.1 percent, Sex Offend
ers with 55.3 percent and Drug
Offenders at 53.3 percent. High recidivism rates among both
drug and property offenses can be particularly devastating when one
considers that these populations represent most of the inmate
population: 39.3 percent (13,558) of all prison admissions in
2003 were for drug crimes and another 30.3 percent (10,456) were for
property crimes, many of which are believed to be to support a drug
addiction. Thus, it can be estimated that as many as 69
percent of all 34,481 adult inmates admitted to prison in 2003
served time for a drug-involved crime. In addition, more than
60 percent of all arrestees statewide and 82 percent of all
arrestees in Chicago
tested positive for at least one illegal drug at their time of their
apprehension.
The Drug Crisis in
Illinois:
Leading the nation in drug trafficking, drug-induced
crimes, drug-related emergency room admissions and deaths from drug
overdose. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice named
Chicago a primary market for cocaine, heroin and
marijuana, and the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) has attributed
the greatest number of emergency department mentions and deaths for
cocaine and heroin in the nation to Chicago as well. In addition, the
Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM) reported that Chicago has the highest number of male
arrestees testing positive for opiates and the second highest for
cocaine in the nation. However, the drug problem in
Illinois
is not confined only to the
Chicago
region with the rise in abuse of highly addictive methamphetamine, a
drug most commonly manufactured and distributed in rural areas.
As a matter of fact, meth abuse treatment admissions from Downstate
rural counties has increased from 46 to 1,609 between 1992 and 2002,
accounting for more than 70 percent of all meth treatment admissions
in Illinois. This problem is further exacerbated by the close
proximity of many Downstate communities to bordering states,
Missouri and Iowa, which have both
been as primary markets for the drug.
In order to begin to reign in recidivism in Illinois, the Governor is taking on the
challenge of directly targeting a population with some of the
highest recidivism rates in the state. Consistent with
statistics showing a 53.3 percent recidivism rate for drug offenders
and a 60.1 percent recidivism rate for property offenders (many of
which are believed to have committed their crimes to support a drug
addiction), the population projections for Sheridan inmates show a
history of 12 prior arrests, with an average of nearly seven prior
arrests for property crimes, 3.5 prior drug-law violation arrests,
more than 2.5 prior arrests for violation crimes and an average of
three prior arrests for other crimes. Both homicide offenders
and sex offenders are excluded from the program.
Various studies have estimated that for
every dollar spent on prevention, such as drug treatment, the
taxpayer can save as much as $7 in the long-term on reduced costs to
society for incarceration, health care and other costs to victims,
increased employment among those that would have been incarcerated,
and improved overall social functioning in communities.