Almost one in four criminals in Virginia will commit another crime after being released from prison or jail. Although that number may seem high, it’s actually the lowest in the country.
According to data released Tuesday by the Department of Corrections, Virginia’s recidivism rate -- how many offenders re-commit a crime after being released -- hovers around 23-percent. This year, for the first time, that’s the lowest in the country, announced governor Terry McAuliffe.
“And so it is my pleasure to announce that among the 45 states who use the comparable data that we use that the Commonwealth of Virginia now has the lowest recidivism rate of any state in The United States of America,” announced the Governor at an event Tuesday.
Despite that success, and a downward trend over the last decade -- for the past couple of years the numbers have crept back up. Harold Clark, head of Virginia’s prisons, says it’s largely because of prisoners with serious mental illness.
“They are returning at a greater rate, and we have linked that to the lack of services, or the lack of their ability to access those services, in the community.”
The state has funded about 20 additional mental health specialists to work with offenders on parole and probation.
