Corrections_Today_September_October_2020_Vol.82_No.5

Recidivism

may still be in prison after the end of this range. Figure 2 displays the time segments graphically along with the mean total costs accumu- lated on the Y axis. Taken together, Table 3 and Figure 2 give valuable insights to where money is being spent over the course of an inmate’s prison stay and post-prison supervision. Regardless of the post-prison path that an inmate took, the vast ma- jority of the cost incurred by the WDOC was during the prison time prior to the first exit. Inmates who discharged to street parole incurred less cost on average ($118,072) than those with no post-prison supervi- sion ($124,058), largely due to the fact that they spent fewer days on average in prison during their initial time in prison. Street parolees do have a higher recidivism rate than inmates who discharge immediately to no supervision, but since they leave prison initially so much soon- er, there was still a net cost benefit over the course of the study. Inmates who are able to at- tend the ACC program have a slightly more complicated route with both ACC and street parole

parole. Prison bed space is lim- ited, costly and difficult to expand. Wyoming’s ACCs provide a clear advantage in prison day consump- tion compared to the street parole and no supervision options. Even given the clear advantage, there are ways to potentially im- prove both prison days and cost for the ACCs. Recent research by the Council of State Governments indicates that the ACC centers in Wyoming “…do not offer enough programs to aid the supervision population in changing violation behaviors”. 2 Additional or improved programming at Wyoming’s ACCs would likely help reduce the high recidivism rate. If the ACCs collectively were to improve their recidivism rate by 10 percentage points, we would see a reduction for the ACC group in average prison days per person of an additional 32 days per person. This improvement in the recidivism rate for the ACCs would also translate into approximately $5,000 less per first-time inmate. The last panel in Table 2 and Table 3 show the days in prison and cost for the aforemen- tioned recidivism reduction scenario.

costs to account for. WDOC ACC participants typically have a street parole period after ACC participa- tion. They get out of prison even sooner than the street parolees, but the ACC is much more expensive ($39.42 Average Daily Cost) than the cost of street parole ($5.19 Aver- age Daily Cost). After their time in the ACC they incur additional costs from their time on street parole. Furthermore, since they have a higher recidivism rate than street parolees, they incur more prison cost after return to prison. Taken together, the mean amount spent over the duration of the study for in- mates who went to an ACC or street parole is essentially the same cost for the WDOC at about $118,000 per person. Implications Although the ACC incurs on average about the same cost as the parole group, there is a clear benefit to retaining post-prison participa- tion in the ACCs as our evidence suggests that the average number of days in prison are fewer per inmate than those who go directly to street

Table 3: Mean Cost Accrued by First-Time Inmates During FY2010-FY2015 by Supervision Type

ACC Modeled (10 percentage point reduction in recidivism)

No Supervision

Street Parole

ACC

Mean Days Tracked

Mean Total Cost $118,777 $118,777 $118,777 $118,777 $124,058

Mean Days Tracked

Mean Total Cost $104,897 $104,897 $107,263 $107,263 $118,073

Mean Days Tracked

Mean Total Cost

Mean Days Tracked

Mean Total Cost

First Release Finished ACC Finished Parole Return to Prison

967 967 967

854 854

738 995

$90,649

738 995

$90,649

$100,908 $103,275 $103,275 $118,506

$100,908 $103,275 $103,275 $113,665

1310 1861 1949

1451 1709 1833

1451 1709 1833

2019 2062

End of Study

60 — September/October 2020 Corrections Today