Latest news with #BureauofJusticeStatistics
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Yahoo
Annual Shred-a-Thon event helped protect community against identity theft
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – News 13, in partnership with Perry and Young Law Firm, held the annual shred-a-thon event on Saturday. The shred-a-thon is held every year to give community members a place to safely dispose of old financial records, bills, receipts, and more. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about one in every five Americans experiences identity theft in their lifetime. Volunteers celebrate Earth Day with beach cleanup in Miramar Beach For those thieves, your garbage is a gold mine. Attorney Larry Perry says it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to keeping your information private. The event took place today from 9 a.m. to noon in the Panama City Mall parking lots. In total, hundreds of cars came through and shredded about six tons of documents. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - In the US, all criminal records are life sentences
Last week, members of Congress once again introduced a bipartisan resolution declaring April 'Second Chance Month' in the U.S. A worthy cause, Second Chance Month is a time to recognize the challenges faced by people with criminal records and to advocate for meaningful reform. Although the idea of a 'second chance' is celebrated, the reality is that the door to opportunity remains shut for millions of Americans coming out of prison. Without access to stable jobs and financial independence, many end up back behind bars or at least continue to have some kind of involvement with the criminal justice system. Each year, more than 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about two-thirds of those released will be rearrested within three years. One of the main contributors to this staggering recidivism rate is the inability to find meaningful employment. A study from the Prison Policy Initiative found that the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals is nearly five times higher than the general population. For Black men with criminal records, the rate is even higher. It comes down to the fact that most employers conduct background checks. Even a quick internet search often reveals a past record, even if the offense was nonviolent or occurred many years ago. With limited employment options, financial stability becomes unattainable, and the likelihood of reoffending increases. If we are serious about reducing recidivism and supporting successful reentry, we should work to dismantle the systemic barriers that prevent people with criminal records from rebuilding their lives. I have three suggestions. First, we should expunge criminal records from internet search results. In the U.S., if someone goes bankrupt, there is no searchable evidence of that bankruptcy after 10 years. However, if you make a mistake with something as simple as failure to appear in court or a charge of driving under the influence, your record appears in internet searches in perpetuity. These search engine results undermine even the most well-intentioned and best-prepared job applicants. This goes directly against the basic American ideal that everyone deserves a second chance. A sensible reform would involve requiring search engines and third-party data aggregators to remove criminal records from search results after a designated period, particularly for nonviolent offenses. If Google can tweak its algorithms to demote low-quality content in search results in an effort to combat 'fake news,' it can give people who have been incarcerated a way to expunge their online record after a period of time or through some fair process, helping individuals move on with their lives without their past defining their future. Second, we should provide tax credits to employers who hire individuals with criminal records. Financial incentives can be a powerful tool in encouraging businesses to do this. A federal tax credit program specifically designed for employers who hire formerly incarcerated individuals would reduce perceived risks and encourage companies to make these hires. Although the Work Opportunity Tax Credit already offers some benefits, they are very limited in that they are available to employers of individuals who have been convicted of a felony or released from prison for a felony only within the last year. A system of tiered incentives based on retention rates could further encourage long-term employment and stability. Third, we should support entrepreneurship for people with criminal records. Not every citizen returning to life on the outside will find traditional employment opportunities, but entrepreneurship provides an alternative path. Starting a small business allows individuals to take control of their financial future and contribute positively to their communities. Unlike corporate hiring managers, customers rarely ask small-business owners about their criminal backgrounds. They care about the quality of the product or service. Entrepreneurship training programs and mentorship initiatives can help people with criminal records build sustainable businesses. My organization has demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. By equipping individuals with practical skills and ongoing support, these programs reduce recidivism and foster economic growth. Second Chance Month serves as a reminder that redemption and rehabilitation are possible — but only if we remove the significant obstacles that stand in the way. Outside of people whose ancestors are from Africa, in America, all of our ancestors started anew and got a second chance. In this way, second chance is not a concept — it is central to what we are all about. Today, we are not living up to this basic principle. Brian Hamiltonis a nationally-recognized entrepreneur and the chairman of LiveSwitch. He is the founder of Inmates to Entrepreneurs, where he serves as the leading voice on the power of ownership to transform lives. He is well known for being the founder of Sageworks (now Abrigo), the country's first fintech company. He is also the star of 'Free Enterprise,' an award-winning show on ABC based on Inmates to Entrepreneurs. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
16-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
In the US, all criminal records are life sentences
Last week, members of Congress once again introduced a bipartisan resolution declaring April 'Second Chance Month' in the U.S. A worthy cause, Second Chance Month is a time to recognize the challenges faced by people with criminal records and to advocate for meaningful reform. Although the idea of a 'second chance' is celebrated, the reality is that the door to opportunity remains shut for millions of Americans coming out of prison. Without access to stable jobs and financial independence, many end up back behind bars or at least continue to have some kind of involvement with the criminal justice system. Each year, more than 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about two-thirds of those released will be rearrested within three years. One of the main contributors to this staggering recidivism rate is the inability to find meaningful employment. A study from the Prison Policy Initiative found that the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals is nearly five times higher than the general population. For Black men with criminal records, the rate is even higher. It comes down to the fact that most employers conduct background checks. Even a quick internet search often reveals a past record, even if the offense was nonviolent or occurred many years ago. With limited employment options, financial stability becomes unattainable, and the likelihood of reoffending increases. If we are serious about reducing recidivism and supporting successful reentry, we should work to dismantle the systemic barriers that prevent people with criminal records from rebuilding their lives. I have three suggestions. First, we should expunge criminal records from internet search results. In the U.S., if someone goes bankrupt, there is no searchable evidence of that bankruptcy after 10 years. However, if you make a mistake with something as simple as failure to appear in court or a charge of driving under the influence, your record appears in internet searches in perpetuity. These search engine results undermine even the most well-intentioned and best-prepared job applicants. This goes directly against the basic American ideal that everyone deserves a second chance. A sensible reform would involve requiring search engines and third-party data aggregators to remove criminal records from search results after a designated period, particularly for nonviolent offenses. If Google can tweak its algorithms to demote low-quality content in search results in an effort to combat 'fake news,' it can give people who have been incarcerated a way to expunge their online record after a period of time or through some fair process, helping individuals move on with their lives without their past defining their future. Second, we should provide tax credits to employers who hire individuals with criminal records. Financial incentives can be a powerful tool in encouraging businesses to do this. A federal tax credit program specifically designed for employers who hire formerly incarcerated individuals would reduce perceived risks and encourage companies to make these hires. Although the Work Opportunity Tax Credi t already offers some benefits, they are very limited in that they are available to employers of individuals who have been convicted of a felony or released from prison for a felony only within the last year. A system of tiered incentives based on retention rates could further encourage long-term employment and stability. Third, we should support entrepreneurship for people with criminal records. Not every citizen returning to life on the outside will find traditional employment opportunities, but entrepreneurship provides an alternative path. Starting a small business allows individuals to take control of their financial future and contribute positively to their communities. Unlike corporate hiring managers, customers rarely ask small-business owners about their criminal backgrounds. They care about the quality of the product or service. Entrepreneurship training programs and mentorship initiatives can help people with criminal records build sustainable businesses. My organization has demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. By equipping individuals with practical skills and ongoing support, these programs reduce recidivism and foster economic growth. Second Chance Month serves as a reminder that redemption and rehabilitation are possible — but only if we remove the significant obstacles that stand in the way. Outside of people whose ancestors are from Africa, in America, all of our ancestors started anew and got a second chance. In this way, second chance is not a concept — it is central to what we are all about. Today, we are not living up to this basic principle. Brian Hamiltonis a nationally-recognized entrepreneur and the chairman of LiveSwitch. He is the founder of Inmates to Entrepreneurs, where he serves as the leading voice on the power of ownership to transform lives. He is well known for being the founder of Sageworks (now Abrigo), the country's first fintech company. He is also the star of 'Free Enterprise,' an award-winning show on ABC based on Inmates to Entrepreneurs.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Yahoo
The never-ending sentence: How parole and probation fuel mass incarceration
The U.S. operates one of the largest and most punitive criminal justice systems in the world. On any given day, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in more than 6,000 federal, state and local facilities. Another 3.7 million remain under what scholars call 'correctional control' through probation or parole supervision. That means one out of every 60 Americans is entangled in the system — one of the highest rates globally. Yet despite its vast reach, the criminal justice system often fails at its most basic goal: preventing people from being rearrested, reconvicted or reincarcerated. Criminal justice experts call this 'recidivism.' About 68% of people who leave prison in any given year are rearrested within three years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It's certainly easy to blame individuals for getting rearrested or reincarcerated. But if you take a closer look at life after release – which often includes employment discrimination, housing barriers and exclusion from basic social services – recidivism seems less like a personal failure, I would argue, and more the workings of a broken system. As a sociologist, I know that people are rarely given a 'second chance' after conviction. Instead, they must navigate a web of legally imposed restrictions. Roughly 19 million people in the U.S. have a felony record, subjecting them to thousands of 'collateral consequences,' in the words of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. These restrictions dictate everything from what jobs they can take to where they can live. I've recently undertaken research to understand the scale of this issue, aided by my former undergraduate student Skylar Hathorn, who is set to begin a master's degree in the fall. What we found was sobering. As sociologist Reuben Miller and historian Amanda Alexander have put it, people convicted of felonies are transformed into 'carceral citizens.' Probation is community supervision, typically imposed by courts as an alternative to incarceration, and parole is a type of prison release under community supervision. While community supervision was originally designed to help those convicted of crimes reintegrate into society – through mentorship, supportive services and other resources – today, in my view, it largely functions as a punitive surveillance system. Instead of helping people reintegrate, the system enforces rules – such as forbidding contact with friends or family members who have criminal records – which create new challenges for people trying to rebuild their lives after prison. As one individual from my recent study on reentry put it, 'That shit ain't helping nobody.' On average, people under community supervision must comply with 10 to 20 conditions, such as mandatory drug tests, regular check-ins with supervising officers, or curfews. These requirements are typically set at the state, county or city level, and can be supplemented with 'discretionary' or 'special' conditions imposed by court or parole officials. But while community supervision is supposed to encourage reintegration and personal responsibility, its conditions are often unrealistic, creating hidden traps rather than pathways to success. For example, imagine you're lucky enough to find a decent job despite having a criminal record – but your probation officer schedules weekly meetings during your work hours. Do you skip work and risk losing your job? Or miss the meeting and risk a violation? Research shows that this dilemma is common. In one study of almost 4,000 people on probation, 55% missed at least one meeting with their parole officer, increasing their risk of reincarceration. What if you aren't able to find a job or can't afford to pay the supervision fees charged each month? Does contact with a family member who happens to have a criminal record defy a condition of your supervision? Will a speeding ticket land you in jail, since you aren't supposed to have any contact with law enforcement? What happens if you struggle with addiction and fail a drug test? Or what if you forget to charge your electronic ankle monitor — will your parole officer suspect foul play? Depending on the conditions of your release, all of these seemingly minor snags could land you back behind bars. That's why some scholars describe this system as a 'parole- and probation-to-prison pipeline.' According to recent estimates, 35% to 40% of yearly prison admissions are of people who were on community supervision at their time of rearrest. In some states, over half of all prison entries are of people on either parole or probation. Importantly, if you're on probation or parole, your chances of being sent back to prison are very different depending on where you live. You can see just how different by visiting the Justice Outcomes Explorer, a new data dashboard created by the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System. For example, among Idahoans who began a term of probation in 2018, roughly 16.6% were sent to prison within a year. Among Minnesotans, it was just 1.6%. According to the Justice Outcomes Explorer, parole outcomes are even worse, though yet again they vary by state. Among those released on parole in 2018 from Utah prisons, roughly 51.6% were reincarcerated within a year. In California, that number was less than 7%. Although some variation may come from differences in data collection, much of it reflects policy choices. As sociologist Michelle Phelps explains, supervision may act as 'an off-ramp for some and a conveyor belt toward prison for others.' Part of the problem is that probation and parole offices vary considerably. For instance, some states cap how long someone may remain on parole, while others allow parole boards to extend that time indefinitely. This creates a system where, in effect, parole boards operate as resentencing entities. Differences in supervision fees, restrictions on associating with others, and the use of electronic monitoring also vary by state. Research suggests that Americans under community supervision must comply with many more conditions than they did just a few decades ago, which raises the question: Does any of this work? While some studies suggest that contemporary forms of supervision may reduce reincarceration, recent analyses call this into question. For example, one study compared people who were randomly placed under intensive probation supervision — requiring more office check-ins, home visits and drug tests — with those under traditional supervision. Researchers found that while both groups committed new crimes at the same rate, those under intensive supervision received technical violations – such as failing a drug test or not following curfew – more often, and were incarcerated more. In another rigorous study out of Kansas, using what researchers call a 'natural experiment,' legal scholar Ryan Sakoda found that post-release supervision significantly increased reincarceration rates. This suggests that community supervision keeps people trapped in the system, rather than helping them escape it. In fact, according to estimates from the Council of State Governments, almost one-quarter of all prison admissions are due to technical violations of supervision, not new crimes. And even progressive states can enforce technical rules rigidly. For instance, Massachusetts sends a relatively small number of people back to prison or jail while they are on parole. But after retrieving data from a public records request, Skylar and I found that between 2020 and 2022, roughly 80% of all parole revocations were due to technical violations. That said, the overall number of people admitted to U.S. prisons for technical violations has fallen significantly over the past few years. In 2018, roughly 133,000 people were admitted to prison for technical violations. By 2021, that number was around 89,000 – a decrease of about 33%. Historically, community supervision wasn't intended to be a form of punishment — it's supposed to help individuals reintegrate. But that's not the way it currently works. If states are serious about reducing crime, they should think about reinventing the system. In 2021, New York implemented the 'Less is More' Community Supervision and Revocation Reform Act, which reformed parole and reduced incarceration for technical violations. The act limits jail time for such violations to 30 days, allows early parole release and requires court hearings within 30 days. Within the first month of being enacted, the number of technical parole violators had fallen by 40%. By April 2022, technical violators only made up 1.7% of the daily state jail population. They had previously made up about 5% on average. Along with policies that prevent criminalization in the first place, states that want to prevent recidivism could consider dedicating more resources to programs that help people with life after release. Offering supports such as housing and even direct cash assistance would help people reintegrate into society and create safer communities, research indicates. On a similar note, criminal records limit access to a range of resources and opportunities such as housing, higher education, voting and social benefits like basic food assistance. Simply having a criminal record also reduces the likelihood – by roughly 60% – that someone receives a callback after applying for a job. That's why Skylar and I support automatic criminal record expungement, among other structural reforms. Put plainly: Research points toward a system in need of comprehensive solutions. Without them, many will remain in the incarceration trap. Skylar Hathorn, a recent graduate of Suffolk University and master's student starting in September 2025, contributed to this article. Lucius Couloute has previously received funding from Mayors for a Guaranteed Income to carry out independent research on the impacts of direct cash transfers in the lives of formerly incarcerated people. Lucius is also a board member of the Prison Policy Initiative.
Associated Press
25-03-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Hawaii to open prisons and jails for inspection of mental health services
Hawaiʻi has agreed to open its prisons and jails for inspection by two national experts who will assess the state's troubled inmate mental health services. The agreement was reached as part of ongoing efforts to resolve a federal lawsuit filed in 2019 over prisoner suicides. There is no agreement yet on financial aspects of the case. The experts will produce a plan to improve the state's correctional mental health system, which has been falling far short of filling critical positions such as psychologists, psychiatrists and advanced practice registered nurses. Twenty of the department's 23 psychologist positions are vacant, and one of the three filled positions is held by a provider who has not yet passed the psychologist licensing examination, legislators were told recently by Tommy Johnson, director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. There were five suspected or confirmed suicides by Hawaiʻi inmates in 2024 — four men and one woman — the largest number since corrections officials reported five confirmed suicides in 2016, data compiled by Civil Beat shows. Nationally, 41% of federal and state prisoners have a history of mental health problems, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Attorney Eric Seitz filed the 2019 class-action lawsuit against the state, alleging corrections officials 'subject people with serious mental illnesses to extreme isolation with little or no mental health treatment.' The suit was originally filed on behalf of the family of an inmate who killed herself while in a state correctional facility two years earlier, and another who was rendered a paraplegic in a suicide attempt. Seitz said Thursday the suit followed a rash of suicides inside Hawaiʻi prisons and jails nearly a decade ago. In it, he claimed the state failed to provide adequate mental health care, including basic measures to prevent suicide and self-harm. 'They're understaffed, the facilities are not conducive to providing the care that they need, they can't transfer out people who need to be in hospitals because the (state) hospital is overpopulated at this point, so it's kind of desperate,' Seitz said. The five apparent suicides last year look to be ongoing symptoms of those problems, he said. 'It's going to be a big challenge for the state to be able provide adequate services for people with mental health needs,' Seitz said, 'but it's something we have to do, we have to figure out a way to do.' Experts Will Have ʻUnfettered Accessʻ Johnson said the inspection agreement does not mean the state admits it is failing to meet national standards for correctional mental health care. 'I don't think the state is stipulating that we don't meet it, I think we're trying to settle the lawsuit and at the same time address the concerns that Eric and his clients have,' Johnson said. The experts are not being hired to evaluate the state correctional system to determine if it meets correctional mental health standards, he said. Instead, Johnson said their job will be to look at the system 'with unbiased eyes' and describe what is needed in a variety of areas such as intake screening for mental illnesses, appropriate housing for mentally ill prisoners, staffing levels, and frequency and duration of mental health care. Corrections officials will provide them with 'unfettered access' to facilities, staff and records, he said. Seitz said the outside experts will be forensic psychiatrists Dr. Bhushan S. Agharkar of Atlanta, and Dr. Jeffrey Metzner of Denver, both of whom are expected to arrive in Hawaiʻi in June. They are 'essentially going to design a mental health system for the prisons that will basically then be taken by joint agreement to the Legislature to be approved and funded next year,' he said. 'What we anticipate is they're going to recommend staffing levels,' Seitz said. 'They're going to recommend perhaps staffing pay increases. They're going to recommend certain facilities that need to be provided, which is also relevant when we're talking about building new prisons.' Also up for discussion will be protocols to prevent suicides, he said, including deploying trained observers who can diagnose and assess mental risks. 'It will be very costly, unquestionably, but I don't know what those costs are going to be,' Seitz said. Johnson confirmed that 'Eric and I agreed that we would speak with one voice to the Legislature and the governor next legislative session to seek the resources that we do not have that are identified by the two experts.' 'Every loss of life is tragic. Whatever we can do to improve the system, working with the experts and then with Eric and the Legislature, it's a win-win for everyone,' Johnson said. 'We have to do a better job, and we have to get the resources needed to do that better job.' He said he and Seitz have not discussed a financial payment regarding the suit, nor have they agreed on any payment to Seitz. No final settlement has been filed with the court, but the two sides have scheduled a telephone conference for Thursday before Magistrate Judge Rom Trader. The Feds Sued First The state has been sued before for failing to meet minimum standards for inmates' mental health treatment. The U.S. Department of Justice sued in 2008, alleging 'deliberate indifference' to the mental health needs of prisoners at the Oahu Community Correctional Center – the state's largest jail with nearly 1,100 inmates. A settlement in that case required reforms in dozens of areas, including increasing staffing levels, providing programs for the mentally ill and improving screening at intake. DOJ supervision of the correctional center ended in 2015, and former employees have said staffing levels soon declined again. Christin Johnson, oversight coordinator for the Hawaiʻi Correctional System Oversight Commission, said she is 'extremely concerned' about the mental health staffing shortages. The state needs to focus on both recruitment and retention, she said. 'I think it's extremely important to get this resolved because at the end of the day, if you don't have adequate mental health care across the board, in every facility, then people will die,' Johnson said. 'Jails and prisons are very traumatic spaces for people, particularly people who have a history of depression, anxiety,' she said. 'So, it's important that those people are monitored and tracked and watched to make sure that they're doing OK in these spaces.' Michael O'Malley, whose son, Joey O'Malley, hanged himself in Hālawa Correctional Facility in 2017, said the effort to overhaul mental health services in the correctional system is 'long overdue.' 'They need to provide the space, they need to do it right, and it's critical,' O'Malley said. 'The level of mental illness in the prisons is way beyond what should happen in a civilized society, and we need to address it, so I'm glad that they're doing something.' 'Yeah, it's going to cost money, but you know what? In the end it's going to be a lot cheaper than putting a bunch of really mentally sick people back out on the street and creating more havoc for everyone,' O'Malley said. ___
