Posted by
Scott Ott on Saturday, January 24, 2009 4:33:48 PM
As the ink dries on President Barack Obama's order to close the U.S. terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, America stands to lose her most effective correctional institution.
While the president and his aides figure out what to do with the remaining enemy combatants residing in the P.O.W. camp affectionately known as 'Gitmo', one startling statistic has received little notice in the mainstream media -- the recidivism rate.
Recidivism, the repeated criminal acts of released convicts, has been the shame of the U.S. "correctional" system for years. Keep in mind that, thanks to progressive thinking in criminal justice, the purpose of prison is no longer to punish and shame the criminal and to keep him off the streets as a public service. No, our prisons exist to help a criminal to come to grips with his emotional challenges and to re-integrate him into society as rapidly as possible...usually before the expiration of his sentence.
According to a
15-year study by the Bureau of Justice, the statistical arm of the Justice Department, two out of every three released convicts get re-arrested within three years of leaving the big house. For violent criminals, 61.7 percent get caught again, and about 40 percent re-convicted. Of course, others likely commit crimes but don't get caught.
Supporters of keeping Gitmo open have noted that as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees, after release, have
returned to the fight, rejoining the network of Islamic jihadists. While this is an alarming fact, and our nation needs a P.O.W. facility to keep these men from returning to their old line of work, allow me to commend the correctional efforts of the staff at Gitmo and to recognize their success in rehabilitating men who had previously devoted themselves to destroying Western civilization.
Only an estimated 11 percent of the 520 detainees thus far released have returned to the fight. This means that Gitmo has a recidivism rate one-sixth the national average. It ought to be the envy of all in the stateside "correctional" industry, whose wardens should be paying $5,000 each for day-long seminars to learn 'The Gitmo Way'.
How do they do it?
What happens at Gitmo to pacify and rehabilitate these men, who have been trained in al Qaeda camps and captured on the battlefield, or while plotting horrific attacks? What techniques account for the fact that nearly nine in 10 of them have apparently not resumed their jihad?
While cold statistics don't answer the question, let's take a moment (how about a national holiday?) to express our gratitude to the staff at the detention center for this roaring success.
Then, let's bring them back to the states so they can run our "correctional" facilities ... Gitmo-style!
Scott Ott, editor-in-chief of the leading family-friendly daily news satire source,
ScrappleFace.com, and anchor of
SNN, writes periodic non-satirical pieces like this one for Townhall.com. He's also contributing author of "
The New Media Frontier", Crossway, 2008, and a dynamic public speaker available through
Premiere Speakers Bureau.