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Sept. 20, 2012 PAO Convenes Summit To Help Prisoners Re-Entering Society
Each year about 8,000 people are released from prison in Washington State. We know that nearly half of them will be convicted of a new felony crime within three years. Half of all people sent to prison this year have been there before.
“There is a lot of room for improvement in our approach to supporting the transition of formerly incarcerated people from prison to the community,” said King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg. “If we can reduce the rate of recidivism through smart investments in re-entry strategies, we can improve public safety, save taxpayer money that would otherwise go to prison budgets, and re-establish former inmates as productive members of society,” he added.
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Dan Satterberg speaking at a PAO summit on September 12
regarding prisoners reentering the community.
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To that end the PAO has begun an effort with community partners to assemble experts on re-entry together with officials within the criminal justice system. Housing, education, jobs, treatment and hope are what is needed for people to succeed in the difficult path from prison back to freedom. The PAO’s group will produce a written report in November for presentation to the next Governor and the next session of the Legislature. While the report has yet to be written, it already has a working title, “Investing for No Return.”
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