WASHINGTON (CN) — Nearly three-fourths of prisoners released in 2012 were arrested within the next five years, according to a study released Thursday by the Department of Justice.
Conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the data was collected across 34 states between 2012 and 2017 to gain insight on recidivism patterns across various demographics, commitment offenses and prior criminal histories.
Of the 408,300 state prisoners monitored, researchers recorded around 1.1 million arrests during the five-year follow-up period. The 34-page study noted that the percentage of released prisoners declined the further out they got from release— from 268,000 arrests the first year to 191,000 in the fifth year.
“Among released prisoners, males were more likely than females to be arrested during each cumulative year following release,” the report states. “At the end of the 5-year follow-up period, the cumulative arrest percentage was 72% for males and 63% for females.”
It also broke down re-arrest rates by race, finding Black and Hispanic prisoners had been rearrested one year after release from prison at similar rates of 38% and 39%, respectively. The rate for white prisoners within the same time period was slightly lower at 35%.
“At the end of the 5-year follow-up period, white (70%) and Hispanic (67%) prisoners had lower cumulative arrest percentages than black prisoners (74%),” the report states.
For either a parole or probation violation or a new sentence, however, researchers found that nearly half (46%) of prisoners released in 2012 wound up returning to prison within five years. The prisoners studied had been sentenced for a mix of convictions, including homicide, rape and sexual assault, robbery, burglary, drug possession, trafficking and unlawful weapon possession. Around 43% percent of them had been arrested at least 10 times prior to their current sentencing. Many of these, dating back to their youths.
“An estimated 85% were first arrested when they were age 24 or younger, including 30% whose first arrest occurred when they were age 17 or younger,” the report details.
In cases where the released prisoners had served time for a violent offense, researchers found that they were slightly less likely, at 65%, to be arrested for any type of crime within give years than prisoners released after serving time for a property (78%), a drug (70%9 or a public order (69%) crime.
The study additionally found that older prisoners were less likely to return to prison than younger released prisoners.
“Eighty-one percent of prisoners age 24 or younger at release in 2012 were arrested within 5 years of release, compared to 74% of those ages 25 to 39 and 61% of those age 40 or older,” according to the report.
Prisoners released at age 65 or older showed even smaller rates of arrest, at just 26%.
The report also compared the recidivism rates of prisoners released in 2012 to those of prisoners released a few years earlier, in 2005 and 2008 — studies that had 19 states in common with the 2012 study.
“The cumulative arrest percentage during the 5-year follow-up period … declined over time, from 77% of those released in 2005, to 75% of those released in 2008, to 71% of those released in 2012,” according to the study, noting only slight decreases.
A separate report conducted last year by the National Institute of Justice found that prison recidivism programs are best assessed using structured and localized data.
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