It is an incontestable and disturbing reality that a high percentage of those who are released from prisons recidivate. Although the root causes of this chronic recidivism are undoubtedly multifaceted, equally sound and productive measures can be implemented to check this tide and facilitate successful rehabilitation into society.
One of the principal causes of recidivism is the plain absence of genuine job opportunities for convicted offenders. The majority are attracted to crime in the first place through socio-economic disadvantage, and upon release are confronted by the same, or worse, economic issues. Having a criminal record is a powerful impediment to securing work that has any meaning to it, since potential employers do not wish to employ former prisoners, and therefore they have few legitimate options to pursue a livelihood. Also, the prison environment itself, ironically, discourages true rehabilitation. Instead of promoting positive change, inmates are housed with other criminals, a group that can reinforce negative values and even provide the opportunity to build criminal networks for future criminal activity on release.
In order to overcome these systemic flaws, both vocational training and social acceptance must be aggressively promoted. Granting prisoners vocational skills training that has marketability skill – for instance, carpentry, mechanics, or programming – is firstly and first conducted to enhance the possibilities of such prisoners securing work and of contributing to society positively. Such valuable practical training is indicative of an evident path out of economic dependency towards self-support. Meanwhile, government institutions can incentivize companies to employ ex-offenders, perhaps through tax breaks or subsidies. Such policies would not only provide value-added jobs but also de-stigmatize ex-offenders and enable them to reintegrate into society effectively and reduce the likelihood of them reverting to criminal activities. In the long term, such preventive investment would certainly be economically more prudent than dealing with successive rounds of incarceration.
In general, while recidivism by ex-convicts is a grave social disease with economic deprivation and the operations of the prison system itself as its causes, it is by no means an incurable problem. By employing the respective training courses specifically designed with individual prisoner particularities in view, combined with educational and substance effort, coupled with the efforts of government assistance as well as those of their community, it can actually break the cycle of recidivism to result in a safer, peaceful society.