Fewer inmates who leave Ohio’s prisons are ending up back behind bars. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction reports the three-year offender recidivism rate is at just under 29 percent, down from a little over 31 percent. That’s a record low. Prisons director Gary Mohr says he looks at that number a little differently.
The national average is 43 percent. Mohr credits new programming in prisons, greater use of community diversion alternatives and changing attitudes on second chances for ex-cons. Of all the inmates released in the last three years, nearly 24 percent of inmates ended up back behind bars because of new felony convictions, while around 4 and a half percent returned because of parole violations