Hug A Thug? [continued]

While we are rightly concerned about the new challenges we face since 9/11, we must be sure to invest in our counterterrorism efforts and our crime-fighting efforts at home. Communities across the nation are facing domestic terrorism that is as real as the foreign dangers we strive to keep from our shores. As president, I will invest not only in law enforcement but also in successful and innovative youth crime prevention programs and prisoner reentry programs. I will support initiatives such as after-school programs that keep youth out of trouble and help them to grow into law-abiding citizens. And I will support programs funded by the Second Chance Act that help ex-offenders get back on their feet and end the cycle of violence that plagues our streets and dismantles families.
- Barack Obama in the October 2008 Edition of Police Chief's Magazine

How realistic are Obama's plans to reduce violent crimes in the future?

The Urban Institute points out that the two-thirds of prisoners are re-arrested within three years of their release. The main reason is due to the fact the ex-offenders do not do well in the job market. The Urban Institute concludes that:

Reentry programs that raise the expected rewards from legitimate work reduce recidivism and increase employability.

Yet the Institute also points out that recidivism is highly attributed to the ex-offenders values. Thus, President Obama's plans to reduce crime by aiding ex-offenders is by no means an easy task and clearly must be approached by not only aiding ex-offenders attain the skills but also the values necessary to be marketable and by influencing employers to be acceptant of them within the workforce.

Can we close the revolving door? Recidivism vs. Employment of Ex-Offenders in the US.
2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates Respond to the IACP’s Questions on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security

Hug A Thug?

As the dust is settling on the 2008 election, one may now examine the effectiveness the future of Barack Obama's crime control policy. Many of President Obama's policies revolve around offender rehabilitation rather than extended incarceration. He also proposed for further ex-offender programs to help their reintegration into society.

Obama will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program and reduce barriers to employment.

This proposal encompasses the same proposal of President Bush who enacted the Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative which intended to allocate $300 million in '04 over four years to help ex-inmates find stable jobs and housing. And yet as Devah Pager wrote in the April 11th 2004 Chicago Tribune

The president is on the right track. Developing a more-successful re-entry program would benefit prisoners and their families as well as increasing public safety. Expanding job training and placement assistance, providing help with transitional housing, and support for counseling services would all help make reintegration much easier and reduce the impetus to return to crime. But the president's proposal does not go nearly far enough.

Devah explains that there are laws that prevent inmates from successfully integrating into society and points out that they must change so that ex-offenders do not return to the life of crime.

Will President Obama's proposal be met with the same scrutiny?
That is impossible to tell.
Are President Obama's proposals taking a soft approach on combating crime?
From a sociological and criminological standpoint, no, rather he appears to be addressing recidivism problem with a realistic approach.

Society Punishes Ex-Convicts For Life
Barack Obama: Urban Policy
Barack Obama On Crime