The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Megan Roberts is a student at the University of Southern Maine. She is pursuing a dual Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminology. This piece was part of a capstone project for the Psychology in the Public Interest class. Kristen Gleason is the instructor of that class and an associate professor of psychology at USM. These are their views and do not express those of the University of Maine System or the University of Southern Maine. Gleason is a member of the Maine chapter of the Scholar Strategy Network, which brings together scholars across the country to address public challenges and their policy implications. Members’ columns appear in the BDN every other week.
This July 4th, people across the United States celebrated our freedom and independence as a country. However, it is also true that 6.8 million Americans spent the holiday behind bars without the same everyday freedoms. A substantial portion of those in the American prison population have more than one criminal offense and have returned to prison after completing a prior sentence.
This phenomenon, known as recidivism, is defined as a person’s relapse into criminal behavior after being released. The American prison system does not provide prisoners with the necessary tools to improve their lifestyle after exiting prison, and this contributes to recidivism. Recidivism rates in the United States are astonishingly high, and in many ways, the way that the country’s prison industry operates is to blame. This is not due solely to the shortcomings of individuals.
Over the past 40 years, the prison population has increased by over 500 percent, leading to prison overcrowding. This rate of overcrowding greatly decreases prisoners’ quality of life and can cause mental health issues due to long-term exposure to poor living conditions. Also, prisoners who are placed into higher security prisons are more likely to return to a life of crime than those who are in less crowded facilities. Crowding can put prisoners at risk of struggling to reintegrate into society. Prison crowding is just one way that prison systems in the United States fail to prepare inmates for their future after prison.
Prisons also fail to provide prisoners with the tools needed to develop the right mindset and mental capability to leave prison. Psychological interventions are programs that are intended to help with mental health treatment and shifting prisoner mindsets. These programs can include individual and group therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and other forms of mental health care. Research has shown that psychological interventions are useful to the mental health of prisoners when provided in group settings and that the continuation of mental health services outside of prison is necessary for future well-being. While psychological interventions exist in American prison facilities, they are often underfunded and often fail to provide medication to prisoners in need of them.
To create change and reduce a person’s likelihood of reoffending, more thorough psychological interventions are needed, as well as an increase in jobs and industries that are willing to offer low-skill jobs to those formerly incarcerated. An increase in jobs in sectors such as construction and manufacturing has been found to decrease recidivism, as these occupations are beneficial to former inmates. Additionally, providing more adequate reentry services to formerly incarcerated people, such as increased opportunities for employment, affordable housing, substance abuse treatment, and mental health services are necessary to prevent their return to the carceral system.
A critical factor in reducing recidivism is community connections and support. One example of a local organization that is focused on community connections for those being released from prison is Reentry Sisters. This is a Maine-based, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed organization helping formerly incarcerated women to transition home and connect to education, work, and housing.
We need to implement more community resources through organizations like Reentry Sisters to improve recidivism rates in Maine and across the United States. What we can do as citizens to improve recidivism rates is support and uplift organizations working towards providing formerly incarcerated people the resources they need to thrive. Raising widespread awareness regarding issues within the prison system is also an effective way to encourage change. With more awareness, we can advocate for our state and federal representatives to pass legislation to enact programs that support wellbeing and reintegration into our community.