KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Correction reported its lowest recidivism rate in a decade, the department said in a news release, earlier this year. TDOC measures recidivism by "the criminal acts that result in re-arrest, re-conviction, or a return to prison within a three-year period after release," the department said.
This year, the recidivism rate for people released from prison in 2019 is 29.6%.
Rates are higher for jail inmates. The Tennessee Department of Correction's statistical abstract said, statewide, jail recidivism rates are closer to 50%. The Knox County Jail has the highest recidivism rate of the jails in Tennessee's four largest counties, at 67%, the 2022 report said.
"If somebody doesn't have structure, if they don't have a support system, and somebody walking alongside them, they're going to revert back to what they know," said Brian Belser, the reentry manager of the Men of Valor Ministry.
Belser spent years in prison on a murder conviction out of Knox County. He said, of late, prisons in Tennessee prepare inmates for release by providing them with two forms of ID, SNAP benefits if they need them, and workforce training and development programs if they qualify.
Jails, however, don't prepare inmates for release in the same way.
"In a county jail, there's limited movement," said Bobby Stout, a "career criminal" who is now helping with reentry at Men of Valor. "That's madness after a while. You're left to your own devices, your own thoughts and it can become debilitating to you."
Men of Valor Director of Policy and Government Affairs Genevieve Turner said the organization is trying to work with people in jails. Turner said, however, the challenge with jail inmates is, they don't spend much time in jail and if they do, it's usually people waiting for trial.