A new study from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the first such federal survey in nearly 20 years, revealed an even higher recidivism rate within five years of inmates being let out: 76.9%. The research also determined that of those prisoners who were rearrested within five years of release, 36.8% were arrested within the first six months and 56.7% within the first year.
The DOJ’s findings showed higher return rates than a 2011 study by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project. That report said 45% of prisoners released from prison in 1999 and 43% of those freed in 2004 were reincarcerated within three years, according to Ted Gest of The Crime Report.
Gest noted that the Pew numbers were lower because that study included only those returned to prison, while the DOJ study included all who were rearrested.