[USA] Governor's Ex-Offender Task Force / Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, December 2006
PDF - http://digbig.com/4qrkq
"Almost 90 percent of the inmates now in Florida prisons will one day be released into thecommunity. At current rates, more than a quarter of those released will return behind bars within three years -- after committing new crimes and creating new victims. The costs to society by such rates of recidivism are unacceptably high and astronomically expensive. Of the 31,000 inmates released from Florida prisons in 2005, an estimated 8,105 will return to prison because of new crimes within three years. The cost of incarcerating so many inmates for a single year is almost $148 million -- excluding capital and court costs and costs to local governments. If each of those inmates receives the average 4.6-year sentence, the cost to Florida taxpayers will exceed $670 million."