A flood of parolees hits streets

Emory Dockery squirms on the stool behind plate glass and tries to explain his seventh incarceration in 20 years.

He reluctantly lists the years he was arrested, the sentences he received, and the crimes he committed - mostly drug offenses. This time he's in on a parole violation. "I left the halfway house," he says. "I knew I would have to face this particular consequence, but I couldn't stay there."

Mr. Dockery is one of more than 630,000 inmates being released from prison this year - the largest such exodus in America's history.

More than half of them return to prison within three years, highlighting a stark problem: In cities from Boston to Los Angeles, violent crime rates have been rising this year in part because of repeat offenses by people newly released from prison.

Dockery's experience is emblematic of the enormous difficulties states face in breaking the cycle of imprisonment and parole. While ex-cons aren't the only factor behind this year's rise in crime, experts say their challenges lie at the core of the crime problem: Many get out of prison no better than when they went in.

"Because we have shifted our emphasis from rehabilitation to punishment, we are putting people back on the streets ill- prepared for dealing with free society," says James Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston. "They have inadequate skills, bad attitudes, and are going back to their old neighborhoods."

In fact, recidivism rates - including for violent and other offenses - appear to be rising. A Justice Department study released this year found that 67.5 percent of prisoners released in 1994 were rearrested withing three years, up from 62.5 percent in 1983. For both years, the study covered two-thirds of prisoners released nationwide.

The recidivism challenge has sparked varying responses over the years, including "three strikes" laws that aim to put three-time serious offenders behind bars for life. Others call for renewed focus on rehabilitation, to put people back on the streets with the means to make it.

"There is an overdue awareness that this is a very pressing social issue," says Jeremy Travis of the Urban Institute in Washington, who co-authored a new report on the state of parole in America. "We quadrupled the rate of imprisonment in 25 years, but we didn't pay enough attention to the inevitability of prisoner release."

For Dockery, the next attempt to make it on the outside will be supervised, as before, by the state of Texas. He will be expected to find a place to live, get a job, and routinely report to his parole officer.

Almost 80 percent of all inmates being released from US prisons are supervised. But states are groaning under the mounting costs associated with that supervision, and experts say the time has come to reform the reentry process.

Aware that a crisis is brewing, US Attorney General John Ashcroft recently announced a $100 million federal grant for states to help their prisoners return home successfully. But state officials say that is just a fraction of what is needed. Facing budget deficits, states have begun cutting into corrections - which for many now is the second-largest budget item.

Florida, for example, suspended new admissions to residential treatment programs for nonviolent drug offenders. California prisoners are no longer given $200 upon release to help start their new lives. Illinois and Ohio have put plans to build new prisons on hold.

Page: 1 | 2