By C1 Staff
CHICAGO, Ill. — Lack of support from family and friends leads more than half of Illinois parolees to violate parole and return to jail, and legislation is hoping to fix that.
According to Dr. Michael Fields, a clinical-forensic psychologist, this lack of support is the number one cause of parole violation.
“The longer they stay in prison the more they become institutionalized,” Fields said. Most convicts come from impoverished backgrounds and have limited access to adequate work, which pushes them back into a life of crime.
In Illinois, 52 percent of release criminals end up back in jail. Technical violation of parole alone costs taxpayers about $100 million a year in terms of processing and incarceration, according to Medill Reports.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis authored legislation that passed in 2008 that aims to help former inmates transition to life after incarceration.
“We are the most incarcerated nation on the face of the earth,” Davis told Medill Reports. “If these people become contributing members of society, then they have become assets, as opposed to the liabilities we know them as being.”