The mission of the Social Justice Resource Center is to link faith to action by providing information and resources on the social issues of our time. This free website hosted by the Archdiocese of Chicago offers resources, publications and action items on 25 different issues, including the issues facing refugees..
In its October newsletter, the resource center shares statistics and articles about the effectiveness of prison rehabilitation programs.
The center cites the Bureau of Justice Statistics which says that the U.S. has the highest number of reoffenders, with 44% of ex-convicts returning to prison after only one year of release. Other countries, the bureau says, don’t reach this number even five years after release.
Center officials also cite Knowable Magazine which states that rehabilitation programs — from education and work skills to group counseling and drug treatment — have been found to be quite effective at reducing a prisoner’s risk of future crime. The effects of educational and vocational programs can reduce reoffending by 10% and drug treatment programs can reduce it by 14%.
The same issues also examines food waste, extreme poverty, climate change and confronting sexism in the church, among other topics. Read the full newsletter edition, here.