Prison recidivism pilot a test worth taking

Just about everyone recognizes that prisons tend to turn amateur criminals into hardened ones who return to prison again and again. That was, after all, the genesis of "three strikes and you're out" laws -- to permanently remove the recidivists.

The worst offenders might have been removed, and society probably breathes easier knowing that, but the cost of recidivism is still incredibly high. In Illinois, prisons are 35 percent over capacity and every prisoner costs $23,000 per year to house and feed.

"All these programs we thought worked, don't work," said Kane County Chief Judge Donald Hudson. "Supervision, electronic home monitoring, you are just putting the person on ice. They are not learning to change."

That's why it seems only logical for the criminal justice system to seek ways to reduce the criminal merry-go-round while it also protects society. A study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found recidivism could be reduced by 3 percent to 20 percent in most of the 571 alternative sentencing programs it studied.

With those dual solutions of public safety and less recidivism in mind, the Illinois Supreme Court committee on criminal law and probation, of which Hudson is chairman, has run a pilot program in Cook County since 2004. It requires that those leaving prison learn some practical life skills as opposed to being released to sink or swim on their own. No valid statistics are yet available on the program, but anecdotally, results have been hopeful.

In lieu of the classic probation reporting, offenders might be ordered to attend classes on areas of personal finance, getting and holding a job, and how to get along with others. Or they may be required to finish high school or attend addiction or mental health treatment or family counseling. Nonviolent drug offenders, who take up a lot of prison space, are an example of one group that might benefit greatly.

"At first, they are not happy about it," said Jose Reyes, chief of adult probation. "But we are finding that many will often go back to their probation officers and say they are glad we made them do that."

This effort to address the underlying causes of criminality rather than just the effects makes all the sense in the world, both socially and financially. Thus, it is definitely worth testing and studying.

But as with education, there has never been a shortage of theories or program ideas in the field of criminal justice. Problem is, as Hudson pointed out, many of them don't work and they can be difficult to test in terms of effectiveness, too. Beyond that, they must be sustainable over time at a reasonable cost to have any long-term impact.

The National Institute of Corrections will issue a report this winter that includes the Cook County pilot program. If it is proven to be effective and can be sustained, it should be spread across the state as quickly as possible. If not, well, we did say there were plenty of criminal justice ideas to test for effectiveness, didn't we?