As featured by CNN this morning, today The Sentencing Project released a comprehensive analysis on recidivism, documenting the widespread evidence that people convicted of homicide and other crimes of violence rarely commit new crimes of violence after release from long-term imprisonment. International studies, too, find low rates of recidivism among this population, suggesting that we can release people much sooner than we currently do. The report, A New Lease on Life, draws upon international, national, and state-level research, and revealed that racially charged fear-mongering by media and policymakers led to the lengthening of prison sentences. Indeed, most state-level studies show that people who are released from life sentences are imprisoned for new offenses at a rate of less than 5%. The report includes compelling personal experiences by people who have been released from prison after being sentenced to life. Click to watch Andrew Hundley of the Louisiana Parole Project and Michael Mendoza of California's Anti-Recidivism Coalition share their experiences. |
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