A Second Chance

Optimer dit sprog - Læs vores guide og scor topkarakter

Uddrag
Hi and welcome to everyone who could participate today. I would like to start off by saying a thank you for having me here today. My name is Mikael and I am a student of sociology at the University of Texas.

Today I will provide economic and prison statistics and I will comment on the importance of giving ex-cons a second chance - not just for society, but for American business too.

Texas has the largest prison population of any state in this country. Nearly 145,000 are incarcerated, and a significant percentage of those are low-level offenders.

Low-level offenders simply being held for violating parole or minor drug crimes. Texas spends about $3 billion a year on prisons. Keeping someone behind bars costs about $50 a day, compared with $3 a day for supervised probation.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2.3 million people are incarcerated across America. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world, at 698 per 100,000 of population.

Of all offenders just about 97 percent, will someday return to society. Statistics show that 30 percent of adult offenders released from state prisons are rearrested within the first six months. If that isn’t bad enough, then 67 percent of ex-offenders return to prison within the first three years after their release.

Why do so many ex- convicts become repeat offenders? Each year 650,000 inmates are released from prison. A study showed that fewer than 45 percent were employed after eight months. Therefor employment to ex-cons seems critical for them to not return to jail.