Ex-Offenders Transitioning Back into Society Research Paper

Ex-Offenders Transitioning Back into Society - Research Paper Example This essay asks that is once a criminal always be a criminal? Are there no chances left for a criminal to reform and lead a normal life? These are the questions faced by the society today. America has only 5 percent of the global population and yet 25 percent of the world’s prison population. America has 2.3 million prisoners behind bars and 5.1 million people on parole. A teaming population of 9 million ex-prisoners are reentering the American society every year. These people have already â€Å"paid their debt to the society† for committing crime and now it is society’s turn to provide them a chance to earn for their livelihood, lead normal life and become good citizens. This paper makes a conclusion that ex-prisoners form a sizeable population of workforce and their inclusion in the job market will give a fillip to the nation’s economy which is under strain. If the opportunities for employment and the other supports are denied to them, nearly half the number of ex-prisoners may return to prisons which will cost heavily on tax payers money and national exchequer. The staggering cost of maintaining prisons and prisoners have already touched $49 billion and if this allowed to increase it will add another $25 billion by the end of 2011.The nation cannot afford to spend $65000 per prisoner which can rather be spent on welfare measures of ex-prisoners and on creating employment opportunities for them thereby reducing recidivism.