Offender Recidivism Figures

2012 Alaska:

A recent report by the Alaska Judicial Council (AJC) examined for the first time recidivism among both felony and misdemeanor offenders in the state. An earlier report in 2007 was the first general study of recidivism and focused on felons. In this 2011 study, the AJC analyzed records for felons and misdemeanants who returned to the community in 2008 and 2009. Because there were two years of data for the offenders released in 2008, the report highlights the analysis of that 2008 sample—2,675 felons and 8,815 misdemeanants. (The report does include data for the 2009 sample.) This article focuses on the data for offenders released in 2008.

In Criminal Recidivism in Alaska, 2008–2009, the researchers looked at three measures of recidivism:

--Rearrests—Department of Public Safety ASPIN data
--Reconvictions—Department of Public Safety ASPIN data
--Remands to incarceration, including remands for new arrests, and for probation and parole violations—Department of Corrections OTIS and AVOMS data.

There is some overlap in the measures, but each reflects an offender’s contact with the justice system which impacts justice resources. In the report and in this article, “recidivism” is used as an umbrella term referring to all measures of recidivism. When a specific percentage for recidivism is given, the measure—remand, rearrest, or reconviction—is identified.

The report also looked at offender characteristics and the location of the court where the case was originally filed; this may or may not have been the same as the offense location. The court locations were designated as Anchorage, Fairbanks, Southeast, Mat-Su, Kenai, and Rural.

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Felons

Within two years of return to their community:

-- 30% of felons were convicted of new offenses.
--2% of Class B felons and 3% of Class C felons were convicted of a more serious crime than their original underlying offense.
--No Class A felons were convicted of a more serious crime. (An unclassified felony is the most serious category and an unclassified felon could, therefore, not commit a more serious offense.)
--29% of individuals convicted of a violent offense, 34% convicted of a property offense, and 34% convicted of “other” offenses were reconvicted of the same category of offense.
--15% of drug offenders were reconvicted of a drug offense. (These offenders were more likely to be convicted of a driving or property offense than another drug offense.)
--2% of sex offenders were reconvicted of another sex offense.

..Source.. by Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage