Warden of Mobile County Metro Jail speaks about prison recidivism rates

MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — Hundreds of correctional and detention professionals are in downtown Mobile to attend the National Institute for Jail Operations' regional Jail Con 2024. The conference will provide training on issues affecting prisons across the country, such as recidivism.

Alabama's recidivism rate is 29%, according to the CSG Justice Center. This week, state leaders and lawmakers met to discuss how to cut that rate in half by the end of the decade as part of the Reentry 2030 initiative.

According to Sam Houston, warden of the Mobile County Metro Jail, the recidivism rate in Mobile County is high.

“We have a significant prison population here in Mobile. Today, our prison has nearly 1,600 inmates. That's nothing to be proud of. We are the largest prison in the state,” he said.

The prison does everything it can to combat recidivism through educational programs, counseling, anger management and other resources, but Houston describes it as a revolving door of repeat offenders.

“I think it would also be more helpful to rebuild those community resources and have alternatives for housing people. That's a big problem,” he said.

Houston cites mental illness and homelessness as the leading causes of recidivism. He says when people are released from prison and put on the streets without resources, they often quickly end up back behind bars.

“It usually only takes a very short time and then they come back. Some of them feel more comfortable in prison than on the streets,” he said.

Other commonalities Houston observes among repeat offenders include people who did not complete high school, grew up in single-parent or broken homes, and got into legal trouble as teenagers.

“It goes on, it doesn't change. They grow up. They've developed a pattern,” he said. “Unfortunately, when you go through those patterns as a teenager into your late teens or early twenties, it's hard to break that pattern and it just becomes a lifestyle.”

Earlier this month, the Southwest Alabama Partnership for Training and Employment received a $1.5 million grant to combat recidivism among inmates at the Mobile County Metro Jail.