We said goodbye to Devin Rourke, our summer intern, today, as she gets ready to head back to Spokane for school. She did a terrific job and helped launch some projects that had been lingering for years. She also had some reflections on her experience, and about her take on the system she’s been studying. Here’s what she had to say:

I’ve been a legal/social work intern at Sumpter & Gonzalez this summer and I suppose that makes me a ‘guest’ blogger. I have learned a lot during my time here: About law, about social work, and about how they can be applied to help people. I might be naïve or an idealist, but I believe that we can change the corrections system so it accomplishes what it was designed to do.

The majority of those incarcerated are not convicted of violent crimes. However, 25% of those in jail for a nonviolent crime will be sentenced again, this time for a violent crime. Around 80% of prisoners in jail are repeat offenders. In California, a program was instituted that sent non-violent drug offenders to rehab instead of jail. It was significantly more successful in helping offenders battle addictions. It was also significantly cheaper.

Cheaper. Now there’s the magic word. States spent an estimated $51.7 billion in 2008 on the corrections system, and it is estimated that it costs around $29,000 to incarcerate an offender for a year. To make this even more frightening, in a 15 state study by the Department of Justice in 1994, 51.8% of offenders were back in jail by the end of 3 years.

How can the system be changed for the better? I think most can agree that the corrections system is not doing what it was designed to do. I think we can agree that it is costing the American people a lot of money at a time when people are counting their change. Most importantly, I think people can agree that the children of these offenders are innocent of all charges.

The children of the incarcerated have often been overlooked and mistreated by the system. They have been forgotten and left behind. There are 2.4 million children in the United States with a parent in prison. 7 million kids – that’s one in ten – have a parent who’s either in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole right now. Approximately 75% of women in jail are mothers and 6% of women entering jail are pregnant. Kids whose parent or parents are in jail are 5-6 times more likely to end up in jail themselves and one of every ten of these children is likely to be incarcerated before age 18.

Studies have found that the strongest predictor of offender success post-incarceration is strong family ties. Family ties are not only important for parents, they have a huge impact on the success of a child. Multiple parental arrests and the resulting pattern of repeated parent-child separation can be devastating for children and can have severe social consequences, such as emotional withdrawal, aggression, drug and alcohol abuse, failure to perform in school, and delinquency. Many of these children never experience a stable home as they are passed from relative to relative.

We have a vested interest in  how these kids grow up. It makes sense economically and in the interest of justice. What kind of people would we be if we punish the children for the crimes of their parents? If we don’t make a change in their lives now, when we have a chance, then we deserve the many costs of the criminal justice system.

Labels: juveniles, policy, recidivism, reoffenders

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