First Paper

Stephanie Slifer, CBS, 2014

About 68 percent of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of their release from prison, and 77 percent were arrested within five years, according to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released Tuesday.

The report, entitled Recidivism of State Prisoners Released in 2005, is based on a BJS data collection which tracked a sample of former prison inmates from 30 states for five years following their release in 2005.

Within five years of release, 82 percent of property offenders were arrested for a new crime, compared to 77 percent of drug offenders, 74 percent of public order offenders and 71 percent of violent offenders, the report found.

Public order offenses include weapons offenses, driving under the influence and other miscellaneous or unspecified crimes..

Regardless of the initial incarceration offense, the majority, 58 percent, of released prisoners were arrested for a public order offense within five years of release. An estimated 39 percent of released prisoners were arrested within five years for a drug offense, 38 percent for a property offense and 29 percent for a violent offense.

Mullane said she was able to determine that 988 convicted murderers were released from prisons in California over a 20 year period. Out of those 988, she said 1 percent were arrested for new crimes, and 10 percent were arrested for violating parole. She found none of the 988 were rearrested for murder, and none went back to prison over the 20 year period she examined.

The BJS report did find that recidivism was higher among non-violent offenders, however, it also found that about 10 percent of convicted murderers released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested within 6 months, and about 48 percent were arrested within five years.

Out of all violent offenders released in 30 states in 2005, about 33 percent were arrested for another violent offense within five years of their release....