The New York State Catholic Conference has just made a formal online statement coming out in support of rehabilitation programs over mere incarceration.
Their announcement references the two things we feel to be most significant about this approach – lowering the cost to the public and achieving greater results when reintegrating the convicted back into society.
Here are the summary and statement of position from their announcement:
Summary
Many of those incarcerated in New York State prisons are afflicted with mental health or addiction problems. These individuals, and the greater society, would be best served by offering lower-cost alternatives to incarceration to address the problems that are at the root of their criminal activity.
Conference Position
The Catholic Conference supports efforts to reduce crime and recidivism, and to help former offenders recover and live productively in the community through expansion and improved coordination of alternatives to incarceration for mentally ill and addicted offenders throughout New York State.
While religion is not something we discuss, it is heartening to see religious organizations becoming aware of the data on which we’ve based our own findings. It’s all part of a positive trend we are seeing in many states towards programs that are both effective and cost-effective, either of which is a step forward.
Unfortunately, these approaches are frequently passed over in favor of short-term savings. Despite the fact that we are all feeling the financial crunch, we must spend slightly more now to save much larger amounts of money over the next few years.
As politicians on both sides of the aisle are hunting for places to slash spending, many of these programs are being endangered. For example, here in my native New Orleans, we are waiting for word on whether the five programs that really do some good are about to shut down due to funding cuts.
The more organizations get on the same page, the better hope we have of fixing our broken system.
