From ProPublica: “Another Place to Warehouse People”: The State Where Halfway Houses Are a Revolving Door to Prison

For our look at criminal justice policy on 2306, focus on recidivism.

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When Colorado formed its community corrections system in 1974, it intended to address prison overcrowding and rehabilitate people in the justice system by providing addiction treatment, job training and other services. Officials saw it as sound fiscal and criminal justice policy: Halfway houses are cheaper to run than prisons, and more assistance would reduce recidivism, meaning fewer people would land back behind bars.

But the reality is more of the people who pass through Colorado’s halfway houses end up incarcerated than rehabilitated. Of every 100 people in a halfway house, only two will be reincarcerated for a new crime, while 26 will fail and likely end up behind bars for technical violations and 14 for running away from a facility.

Among the 57 who do graduate, 22 will be back in the criminal justice system within two years, data since 2009 shows. (Due to rounding, these scenarios add up to 99 people, not 100.)

Colorado’s overall recidivism rate — defined by the Department of Corrections as returning to prison within three years — is 50%, one of the worst in the country, according to a nationwide analysis of recidivism published in 2018 by the Virginia Department of Corrections.

- Private Prisons.

- CoreCivic.

- State Recidivism Comparison.

- Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

- Colorado’s Office of Community Corrections.

- Community corrections in Colorado:Program outcomes and recidivism.