Alaska CURE: Life on the installment plan

In a recent Anchorage Daily News article they stated that an alarming 1 out of 88 people in Alaska were in our prisons and jails. Even though we are rank 47th in population that does not mean that we should have so many of our men and women in prison.

Alaska also has a recidivism rate of 50.4%. We join five other states–Minnesota, Vermont, California, Missouri, and Illinois–where offenders are likely to re-offend. More than half of all Alaska prisoners released in 2004 returned to prison within three years, according to a national study released Wednesday by the Pew Center on the States.

The study tracked prisoners until 2007 and included more than 5,800 ex-cons in Alaska who were caught committing new crimes or breaking the conditions of their release before heading back behind bars.

Read the full article here

Alaska CURE: Facts about incarceration

Facts about incarceration:

• There are over 2.1 million people in prison and jails in the United States
• 1 in every 88 people in the state of Alaska is in prison or jail
• The United States has 5% of the world’s population but has 25% of the world’s prison population
• There has been over a 500% increase of the prison population in the last 30 years
• These trends have resulted in prison overcrowding and state governments that are overwhelmed by the burden of funding a rapidly expanding penal system, despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not the most effective means of achieving public safety.
• Changes in sentencing law and policy, not the increase in crime rates, explain most of the six-fold increase in the national prison population
• These changes have increased the use of “one size fits all” mandatory minimum sentences that allow little consideration of individual characteristics
• Only 10 countries still use the death penalty: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Vietnam, Jordan, Mongolia, Singapore and the Untied States.

Alaska CURE Chapter

Hello All,

An Alaska CURE chapter is in the works! Having been a active member of Colorado CURE and it’s secretary until moving to Alaska last August, the need for a chapter up here is apperant.

The same issues in corrections face the offenders in the North as they do anywhere else Outside.

• visiting
• grievance procedures
• re-entry
• pro-family support
• phone systems
• recidivism
• and on and on and on…

One of the biggest issues that the offenders in Alaska face is that quite a few of our prisoners are housed out of state in Colorado. This makes it not only difficult on the offenders themselves, but their family members too.

In the coming weeks, more information will be added to this website, along with meeting plans in the Anchorage area, a brochure mailer and a newsletter. If you would like more information on what CURE is all about, I encourage you to look around on this site and visit the National CURE website as well.