(Although some researchers believe that strong family ties may lower recidivism rates, New York is one of only a handful of states to allow trailers).
Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, said she backed the program because drug courts elsewhere had lowered recidivism rates.
Having a job in prison has been linked in studies to decreased violence, improved morale and lowered recidivism — but most effectively, experts say, when the task is purposeful.
Correctional experts said the move by Mr. Corbett, a Republican, made Pennsylvania a prominent voice in the national debate over whether new correctional strategies, including halfway houses, lowered recidivism rates and cut ballooning prison budgets.
In 2009 parole violators accounted for a third of all state prison admissions, but this sort of admission declined last year, thanks in part no doubt because of the efforts made at the state, local and federal level to lower recidivism rates.
There are many possible reasons why CEO may have lowered recidivism when other transitional jobs programs did not.
It may be that something about the inter-personal dynamic within the crew, or in the relationship between the supervisor and the participants, led to the kind of attitudinal changes that criminologists believe are necessary to lower recidivism.
