Kolbe on Recidivism and death after prison rates

As the Kolbe Foundation continues to invest in rehabilitating prisoners, the recidivism, or return rate, remains at approximately twenty percent.  So, what percentage of these inmates is serious about change, and how does the Kolbe Foundation identify those persons?

Virgillio Murillo

Virgillio Murillo, CEO, Kolbe Foundation

“I would want to think that there are some who want to change their lives. And, I can predict the ones that will go out there and die. I will tell you the truth; we are putting a database together. I call that database “death after prison.” We have come up with at least forty-nine ex gang members, over the last two years, who have died shortly after they left prison. I am not even sure if any of them even passed a year, if my memory serves me well. We are putting that together because this was one of the reality shows we wanted to present to this last state of emergency guys. But, like I tell you COVID prevented us from making it into the graphic details of it. Sometimes, you got to show these people the reality. Like Nelson Mandela said, you got to talk to them in their language. You can’t be prettying up anything for them. That is the language they understand.”