New policy paper on reducing recidivism

Today a kind reader sent me this link to a new policy paper from The Progressive Policy Institute, titled "Stop Revolving-Door Justice: How Corrections Systems Can Reduce Recidivism." Here is part of the start of the paper:

While criminals are locked up, the system does too little to prepare them to be reintegrated into their communities as productive, law-abiding citizens. And it fails to effectively supervise people on probation and parole, even though their propensity to commit more crimes is well known.

The escalating crime rate among discharged prisoners also highlights a basic defect in conservatives’ reflexively punitive approach to law enforcement. Their disdain for prisoner rehabilitation guarantees that most offenders will simply be dumped back into the communities they came from, without the skills, tools and incentives they need to change their lives. In their zeal to punish the wicked, many conservatives have lost sight of public safety.

Progressives should not shy from tough sentences for cold-blooded predators and drug profiteers, even if that means high incarceration rates. At the same time, however, they should insist that the U.S. corrections system be tasked with preventing crime as well as punishing it after the fact. In practice, this means that everyone involved in corrections — wardens, sheriffs, parole officers, and probation supervisors — must be held responsible for reducing recidivism rates.