(This week’s newsletter is excerpted from Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Dana Fabe’s State of the Judiciary address Wednesday to a joint session of the Alaska Legislature. The chief justice focused on recidivism in the criminal justice system and two programs the court system has instituted to slow the revolving door on state prisons. (A full copy of Chief Justice Fabe’s comments can be found at: www.state.ak.us/courts/state08.htm)

     Recent cooperative efforts in the criminal justice community are addressing one of our most persistent and frustrating problems: the high rate of recidivism. Last year, the Alaska Judicial Council published the report Criminal Recidivism in Alaska, which painted a fairly bleak picture. The report found that two-thirds of all felony offenders studied returned to the custody of the Department of Corrections at least once within three years of their release. Over half of all offenders studied were re-arrested for a new offense at least once within this time frame.
     These are sobering statistics, and those of us charged with meeting our constitution’s call to rehabilitate criminals cannot take them lightly. Yet they come as no surprise to many of us in the judiciary. As judges, we see the same people returning to our courtrooms, and we sentence them to jail – time and again – with the hope that they will turn away from lives of crime. Too often, these measures fail to work. Our counterparts in law enforcement and corrections see the same pattern, and we all share the frustration that for too many Alaskans who violate our laws, the door to jail is a revolving one. Too many Alaskans continue the habits that got them into trouble in the first place, and too many Alaskans find themselves in trouble again. We are left to ask ourselves what is it that we’re missing.
     Many of us in the criminal justice community have come to realize that our traditional ways of doing things may not be as effective as they should be, and we have opened the door to pursuing needed change in the system. In the process, many of us have also come to realize that few changes we make as a system can be effective in the long run if we don’t also facilitate the extremely difficult personal change offenders themselves must undergo if they are to put their criminal behavior behind them. I would now like to touch on two collaborative programs that embody the goal of fostering change, both systemic and personal.
    The first is therapeutic courts. In its companion report on Recidivism in Alaska’s Felony Therapeutic Courts, the Alaska Judicial Council found that graduates of therapeutic courts were significantly less likely to re-offend than other offenders studied. Therapeutic courts require participants to engage in treatment, employment, and educational activities, and they offer a wide range of coordinated support services. Participants are required to confront the substance abuse problems that are at the heart of their criminal behavior, and to reintegrate into their communities as law-abiding, healthy citizens. Therapeutic courts have demonstrated that many criminal defendants will work hard to correct the problems that have brought them into trouble with the law, and will move on to successful lives if given structured expectations, coordinated support, and consistent positive reassurance that they can prevail over their addictions.
    One graduate of the Juneau Therapeutic Court credits the program with helping him get his life back after spending five years "wasting away in prison" because of his drinking. "Today, my life has never been better," he says, "and I have a clear head to plan my goals, hopes and dreams."
    With the legislature’s vital support and assistance, the court system is now operating nine therapeutic courts in six major communities statewide: Anchorage, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Palmer. In the few short years since their inception, these courts have helped hundreds of Alaskans return to healthy and law-abiding lives, with immeasurable positive impact on their families and communities.
    Our experience with therapeutic courts has suggested that a similar supportive approach might successfully address another problem related to recidivism: failed re-entry into society by those leaving our prisons. Each year, thousands of Alaskans are released from our jails and juvenile detention facilities to confront the challenge of becoming productive members of their communities. These Alaskans face not only the transition from incarceration to freedom, but the difficult personal change that is necessary to avoid the mistakes of the past. How well they navigate these changes will determine whether they remain in society as law-abiding citizens or instead return to our jails.
    The Judicial Council’s recidivism study found that offenders were more likely to re-offend or be remanded to custody during the first year after release, and especially during the first six months. This suggests strongly that services targeted to help offenders navigate the difficult transition from life in prison to life in the community can be beneficial and cost-effective. According to the recidivism study, re-entry programs could help offenders "adjust to the expectations of employers, treatment providers, and others with whom they must interact." Re-entry programs could also assist with finding "safe, sober housing" – a critical component of stability in the community.
     In addition to the daunting circumstances that all offenders confront upon reentry, offenders who suffer from substance addiction must face the additional challenge of maintaining sobriety. For many, steering clear of the temptation to use drugs or alcohol can mean abandoning the entire life they left behind when they were arrested. When asked to describe the greatest challenge she faced upon release, one former methamphetamine addict described it poignantly: "I had to stay away from my friends and family, because they were all still using." When the very act of re-uniting with your family and support system means exposing yourself to a serious risk of relapse, it’s not hard to understand why so many offenders with histories of substance abuse return to the habits that led them to criminal behavior.
    As all of these stories illustrate, re-entry can be a frightening and daunting process. Yet by offering appropriate support services, through steps as simple as providing mentors or assistance with employment and housing, we can help offenders in re-entry gain greater confidence in their ability to succeed.