https://www.fd.org/sites/default/files/criminal_defense_topics/essential_topics/sentencing_resources/useful_reports/incarceration_and_recidivism_factsheet.pdf

More evidence that people “age out” of criminal behavior as they grow older, particularly if they are given help with reintegrating back into society:

https://wtop.com/maryland/2020/05/growing-old-in-prison-how-maryland-is-working-to-ease-the-path-to-release-for-a-low-risk-high-cost-population/

I’m sure the correct meaning of “recidivism” is that you keep committing crime over and over no matter how many times you’ve been arrested and jailed for each one. But apparently LE seems to consider a technical probation violation as recidivism which it should not be. Such a definition misleads the public.

I recently read a report from some government agency (I think it was DOJ) which gave an elaborate explanation of how they interpreted the word “recidivism”. It was so far off from what I thought recidivism was that I am avoiding the word altogether. People definitely are not agreeing on the meaning of the word and that is putting out misinformation and confusion on the topic.

I am starting to use “re-offense” instead but am not sure that everyone agrees on the meaning of that word either. So I should probably say “someone who commits another sex crime”.

yes i see the name on it but that does not mean it was not spun in one direction or the other

The United States Sentencing Commission

It is unclear whether sex offenders were accounted for in this study.

Maybe not. But it is clear that those who have served prison sentences for sex crimes are extremely unlikely to commit another, and that when they are arrested it’s nearly always for status offenses.

Just because a president attempts to reform the prison system, it doesn’t mean the prison system will comply. They’ll keep on with business as usual. And the prison system is a business.