Each year, the U.S. spends nearly $40 billion on prisons. Yet the return on investment is not good as nearly 80 percent of released prisoners are rearrested within five years. Better public safety outcomes can be obtained for the same amount of money by doing three things: significantly expanding the delivery of effective programs; further reducing our reliance and spending on prisons; and placing greater emphasis on the use of validated risk assessments to help prison system officials make better programming and downsizing decisions.

Further downsizing the prison population would not only reduce costs, but also free up the physical space needed within prisons to provide more interventions.

Decades of research have shown there are effective interventions that reduce recidivism by targeting known risk factors. For instance, the likelihood of recidivism rose by 13 percent when prisoners were “warehoused,” or idle in prison because of choice or a lack of resources. For the recently released, this diminished the chances of getting a job and made it harder to avoid committing another crime. Increasing prison programming resources — such as substance abuse treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy, sex offender treatment, and education and employment programs — will lessen recidivism and increase the odds of succeeding.

Read the full article on prison reform by Grant Duwe at American Enterprise Institute