Recidivism
Individuals leaving incarceration are asked to obtain employment within 21 days of reentry. Within this grouping are many former drug dealers accustomed to making at least $35,000 per daily transaction. Upon reentry into communities, they are asked to accept a $9.00 – $12.00 per hour job. This equates to them earning weekly $360.00 – $480.00 net pay, from which many must pay a 25% fee for transitional housing, child support, rent, food, clothing, taxes, etc.
It is not surprising that many will recidivate within 3 to 9 years, as recidivism is complex and likely due to a combination of personal, sociological, economic, and lifestyle factors.
Of the 401,288 State prisoners released in 2005, an estimated 1,994,000 arrests occurred during a 9-year period. This equates to an average of 5 arrests per released prisoner. Sixty percent of these arrests occurred during years 4 through 9. An estimated 68% of released prisoners recidivated within 3 years, 79% within 6 years, and 83% within 9 years.
Training that offers prisoners an alternative to recidivism and low wages
Homelessness and labor trafficking in the United
Homelessness is characterized by extreme poverty coupled with a lack of stable housing. Those experiencing this epidemic include children on their own or with their families, single adults, seniors, LGBTQ+ people, and veterans, human traffic labors, or those who experience homelessness for various lengths of time (short-term, long-term, or “chronic”) or who experience multiple episodes of homelessness.
The number of men, women and children in America experiencing homelessness in the U.S. is 564,000 (2019); 553,742 (2018); an estimated 950,497 people used an emergency shelter or transitional housing program (October 1, 2016, and September 30, 2017).
Florida had an estimated 31,030 experiencing homelessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Of that Total, 2,757 were family households, 2,543 were Veterans, 1,892 were unaccompanied young adults (aged 18-24), and 5,302 were individuals experiencing chronic homelessness (2018).
Similarly, it is important to research how labor trafficking affects our homeless population. For example, the International Labor Organization (ILO) found that victims of sex trafficking more likely faced transnational human trafficking while victims of forced labor typically experienced exploitation in their country of residence. In like manner, the Urban Institute–Northeastern University study on Human Labor Trafficking revealed that recruiters coerce individuals into this form of entrapment by providing them with misrepresentation of the job, immigration benefits, and living conditions. Ninety-three percent of the 122-case study reflected these types of fraud was used.
A bevy of high-pressure sales tactics normally occurred to get individuals to sign contracts and pay expensive recruitment fees. Familial obligations and debts to the trafficker, give traffickers leverage to control victims once forced labor begins in earnest. Labor traffickers use violence, threats, and lies to force people to work against their will.
In America, many industries of exploitation include hospitality, agriculture, restaurant, construction, assisted living, and domestic work. This multifaceted crime can challenge policy makers. The foundational elements of human trafficking are difficult to grasp, and the real-world instances of this exploitation are even harder to identify. Thus, we must develop those rescued and who face homelessness by teaching them to become self-sufficient.
