You're in a meeting with the mayor and police commissioner to address issues surrounding jailing, release and recidivism

First, you need to understand the assignment: you are supposed to discuss three interconnected subjects: the current U.S. prison situation, the release system and the phenomenon of recidivism.

For each one of them, you need to include data (always referencing) that indicates the current situation and mention the problems or the limitations of the actual system. This is your descriptive part.

You will probably observe that the number of inmates in the U.S. prisons has increased tremendously over the last decade which leads to an important rise of costs and also to a depreciation of the correction system. You might also assert that because of the insufficient infrastructure, the efficiency of the rehabilitation system decreases, which may be one of the causes of an alarming number of recidivists.

In such a context, discuss the social policies you would promote in order to reduce the prison population and/or the recidivism rate (e.g. more efficient rehabilitation programs). When you reflect upon the rehabilitation system, think of the diversity of crimes and of criminals. In some cases, rehabilitation would mean not only the reinsertion into society, but first the healing of the causes that drive a certain person to commit crimes.