Recidivism is defined as “the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend” and it is a widespread problem. For instance, a Bureau of Justice Statistics study of more than 400,000 prisoners in 30 states found that after their release, more than half of inmates (56.7%) were arrested within a year and two-thirds (67.8%) within three years.
To address this problem, the Reentry Success DC partnership equips Washington DC inmates at the Rivers Correction Facility the training, skills, and support they need to be productive members of society after having completed their sentence.
Launched in 2018, we know that Reentry Success DC is working because the rate of participants returning to federal custody is just 2 percent during their first year. (Note: Two percent only includes their return to federal custody, not arrest and return to state or local prisons.)
By comparison, a study from the United States Sentencing Commission noted that 16.6 percent of offenders are rearrested within the first year of their release.
“Over these 35 years, being a correction professional, I learned to notice that at this facility in North Carolina, the employees that work there took great pride in helping to return the citizens and the joy, especially once they’ve gotten jobs, when they get out and assisting them.”
Roosevelt Littlejohn, National Business Representative of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE)
“That’s how I feel that I don’t take my job lightly. I have a passion. It’s just my passion to see someone just go beyond what they think they are.”
Patricia Holloman, Transitional Case Manager at The GEO Group