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Pathways For Change: Reducing Recidivism, Saving Money
February 22, 2015
This legislative session, Florida’s lawmakers will be asked reconsider how the state deals with criminals. As lawmakers look to reform the system without breaking the budget, one Pensacola nonprofit could offer answers.
Pathways for Change, which is observing its 10th anniversary this year, estimates that it has saved Escambia County residents an estimated $4.2 million in the last decade – and transformed numerous lives – through its residential treatment program for drug offenders.
“We deal with the real problem,” chief operations officer Chris Collins said. “The real problem is addiction, but also things like a lack of education and job training. We take a holistic approach and try to remove every obstacle so they are more likely to become productive citizens.”
Florida Tax Watch, a nonpartisan think tank based in Tallahassee, is one such group. In its annual government efficiency recommendations, released last month, Tax Watch recommended the state invest in building web-based tools that would help judges, prosecutors and others analyze the costs and risks of incarceration compared to other sentencing options. Reform groups have long pointed to such programs as a proven way to reduce recidivism, shrink the state’s prison population and rein in mushrooming costs.
Tax Watch researchers estimated that every one percent reduction in recidivism translates to $8 million in taxpayer savings.
“They’re throwing money at a broken system, only to have a bigger broken system,” Pathways Director Connie Bookman said. “Legislators need to pay attention to reality.
Collins agreed. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” he said. “The judges in our county see this as a better option than sending a man to prison. I think the introduction of programs like ours throughout the state would help turn the tide of a bloated system.”
Comments
7 Responses to “Pathways For Change: Reducing Recidivism, Saving Money”
@ David Huie Green
Now i understand. How are you interpreting my comments to mean what you wrote ?
The article was the subject matter. I said through my ignorance because i didn’t want to give a blow by blow of everything i’ve done. I did wrong and got what i deserved. Nevet did i give excuses. I was 16, gone from the world. To me, i never heard of the net. If you had a computer at all, you were well-off. Cell phones were in big black cases. So getting out at 25 with no adult experience was a shock, and hard to adjust, to say the least. I was trying to convey how little i knew of being a grown-up, released into a new world (to me), after having no human contact for 5 years in solitary. Yet i made it. Have a great job, am married, and have two great kids. The subject was recidivism. My point was that they dont need a bunch of money. Teach em before they get out.
Oh, BTW, i was the minority in 3 ways, young, white, and good-looking. I was 20, in the shower. Two guys got in the shower and started doing perverted things. I got out, went to my bunk to get my #5 master lock and belt. One left via life flight. The other sucked through a straw for 6 months. To do nothing would’ve sent an invitation for sexually physical contact. That’s the reason for solitary.
REGARDING:
“David, people “are” smarter than you give them credit for. You don’t have to hold everyone’s hand or teach them the ABC’s. ”
I don’t think most of them ARE stupid.
I think most would realize they had done something wrong to get themselves in prison.
Most would realize they had done something to get themselves put in solitary.
Most don’t even do any of those things because they are smart enough to know better.
Most of them are smart enough to not blame everybody else in the world.
David for the better people
I am in corrections – I work as an educator. When you teach someone to read and write, you reduce their chances of recidivism. The same goes for our Residential Drug Abuse Program (R-DAP). Inmates who complete this program further reduce their chances of recidivism because they have been given tools to make a change and can make better choices. Numerous other offerings through Religious Services, the Medical Department and so on further help the cause.
You can’t just lock someone up for years and then throw them back into society with no preparation or remediation and expect then to survive.
However, NONE of this will work if the individual does not care to be rehabilitated. The desire to NEVER come back to prison and to do what it takes to live a legal, productive life is a choice the criminal must come to on his or her own. It’s hard work, making that choice, but you’ll never regret it once you make it.
I wonder where Escambia County has used the 4.2 million saved or will the county dispute that figure.
@David Huie Green
I could put in dry humor fashion such as you like. I could even itemize each and every criminal offense with case #. I believe it would appeal to the meticulous nature with which you write.
However David, people “are” smarter than you give them credit for. You don’t have to hold everyone’s hand or teach them the ABC’s. Thank you.
REGARDING:
“My problem was not drugs or alchohol, but ignorance. Sentanced to 10 yrs. At only sixteen in 1995, no youthful offender status, straight into adult prison. Then from 99-2004 it was solitary confinement. Then immediate release.”
They put you in prison for ignorance?
They put you in solitary confinement for ignorance.
They released you out of ignorance?
Perhaps you should consider writing fiction. Some would buy it.
David for truth
My problem was not drugs or alchohol, but ignorance. Sentanced to 10 yrs. At only sixteen in 1995, no youthful offender status, strait into adult prison. Then from 99-2004 it was solitary confinement. Then immediate release.
I had no social skills, knew nothing of computers, how to drive, fill out an application, or how to write a check. I had no idea how credit worked. I could go on.
However, although i cant do what i’d like (going to college), i’ve never had a problem getting a job. I’ve had three in 11 years since being released, here in this area, paying $13 to 18 an hour. So they can get jobs. I think educating is key. If you can read and comprehend, you can learn anything.