The Nation - News from April 3, 1989

Nearly 63% of the inmates released from state prisons are rearrested for a serious crime within three years, according to a Justice Department study. The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics examined the criminal records of more than 16,000 men and women who were among 109,000 offenders released from the prisons of 11 states in 1983. It found that by the end of 1986, about 62.5% of the former inmates had been rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor, that 47% had been convicted of a new crime and 41% had been sent back to prison or jail. The recidivism study tracked the records of people released from prisons in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Texas but did not break down the data by state.