[sokoloff]

If a group with a prior criminal behavior rate of near 100% has that rate reduced to 87%, is that evidence that prison is fucking them up even more?

(I think prison probably is fucking people up more, but a mere citation of high recidivism rate isn’t evidence of that to me, given the prior.)

[pwinnski]

Given that some percentage of people in jail or prison are there for the crime of possessing drugs, something which college students seem to do regularly without consequences, I'm not really surprised that those people don't re-offend.

One way to see whether 87% is high or low might be to compare it to the rate in other countries. We seems to be near the top of that list, but not alone there.

Jail or prison itself may or may not drive people toward more crime, but the difficult in finding housing or a job with a criminal record certainly does a lot to kill hope.