Serving the Undeserving

Authors

Doug Crandall, Blue Rudder Leadership, WashingtonFollow

Abstract

How do you know if a prisoner is lying? His lips are moving. According to the Pew Center on the States, on January 1, 2010, one million six hundred twenty-one thousand two hundred and twelve human beings were living behind bars in the United States of America-incarcerated by a state or the federal government (2010). That is approximately one out of every one hundred Americans. In 1972, the total number was less than two hundred thousand (2010). The average annual cost to house an offender in the State of Washington is $36,000 (Washington State Department of Corrections, 2008). Assuming a similar cost across the nation, we spend more than $58 billion per year to keep people behind bars. In Washington, the $1.8 billion outlay for the Department of Corrections is the state's third-largest budget item (2008). For every two offenders who walk out the doors of a prison with a new life ahead, one will go back-the result of a new crime or a parole violation. Recidivism rates in Washington have dropped in recent years-likely the effect of concerted efforts to reform rather than simply punish. The state likes to keep track of three-year recidivism rates, and their official figure doesn't include parole violation-related boomerangs. Given those parameters, the rates in Washington have dropped from 35 percent of inmates released in 2003 to 31 percent of those released in 2006-that is, within three years, 35 percent and 31 percent had returned to prison (Washington State Department of Corrections, 2010).

Recommended Citation

Crandall, Doug (2011) "Serving the Undeserving," International Journal of Servant-Leadership: Vol. 7, Article 6.
DOI: 10.33972/ijsl.164
Available at: https://repository.gonzaga.edu/ijsl/vol7/iss1/6

Copyright Information

Copyright 2011 The Author(s). All rights reserved