High Cost of Recidivism in Utah

Education in our state prison system is a must if we are to reduce the number of offenders being housed. Merely offering programming, many sponsored by church groups, is NOT the answer. Offenders need to learn a marketable skill in order to become a functioning, contributing member of society when released.  Not only will these men and women once again become members of society, they will not return to the system time and time again. This in itself will save the taxpayers of Utah millions of dollars by stopping this revolving door!

Over $30,000 annually is spent on incarcerating one person in the state of Utah. Add to this the cost of booking that offender into custody (in 2012 the cost was $1700.00) .Then there is the cost of the substance abuse programs at $3500 per offender and the sex offender programs at $3900 per offender. Plus add the cost of medical care for these offenders. How is the state going to keep going at this rate? The Utah prison system has a capacity of close to 7000 offenders housed in the two main facilities at Draper and Gunnison. And the system is at capacity! Offenders are being housed in county jails to assist with the overcrowding.

Utah ranked third in the nation in a 2008 “Study of Recidivism Rates Nationally”.

Reducing this recidivism rate would lower overall crime rates in Utah. There would be less of a chance of victimization.  Lowering of the recidivism rate would obviously reduce the cost Utah taxpayers are paying to house the offenders.

 Offenders in an educational program are 20% less to return to prison than those who are not enrolled. If one million dollars were to be invested in education, this would facilitate reducing crimes by 600 cases. But spend one million dollars to keep the offenders incarcerated without educational programs and this would only prevent approximately 350 new criminal cases. (UCLA Study, Correctional Education as a Crime Control Program, 2010)

Right now in the Utah prison system, there are educational programs in place through several local colleges. But there is only room for 175 offenders in these programs. (Apples and Oranges, Nathan Brady, January 31, 2012) As one can see, the ratio is not the greatest!