State prison statistics are grim. They paint a correctional system filled with men who have little to no education and no job skills and a 50 percent probability of returning behind bars three years from the time they exit.
Gary Maynard, the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, says about 80 percent dropped out of high school (if not before) and 30 percent are illiterate.
Illiterate. So maybe they can text message the abbreviated symbols we use to communicate on cell phones, but they cannot read an e-mail or the charges filed against them.
And unless they ask to study, they will leave prison in the same shape — with no possibility of finding a legitimate job.
Until now. This fall the department will start building a digital inmate-tracking system. It will grab information including education level, drug and alcohol problems, mental health issues, gang affiliation and job skills and match inmates with the services and education they need.
It won’t cover all of the 23,000 men (and 1,000 women) in the system, but it will track new entrants — and begin to help more than just the few who self-select to earn a general education development certificate. Last year 700 prisoners earned GEDs, a fraction of the 19,000 who need them to find a job on return to freedom.
We wonder what took the state so long to launch the program. An abundance of evidence shows the effectiveness of pre-release education and training programs in reducing recidivism — which leads to fewer return inmates and lower costs, about $25,000 per inmate per year.
But creating the offender case management system shows Maynard — and the guy who hired him, Gov. Martin O’Malley — understand prison must be more than a warehouse for inmates if the prisoners are to succeed on the outside. If the prisoners succeed inside, crime goes down permanently on the outside.
A complex set of factors, including family and community support, addiction, housing, the availability of work — and most importantly, personal choice — determine whether an ex-prisoner can turn his or her life around. Without systematic support before they leave, we know 50 percent will return to prison within three years. Many more fail and are not caught. If not to give prisoners a second chance, the state must start being a better steward of the $1.4 billion taxpayers direct to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services each year. The case management system is a good start to that goal. We look forward to tracking its results.
