Many people turn and turn back to crime because they feel like they don’t have a choice.

Countries with lower recidivism focus on providing the support former criminals need to rejoin and contribute to society.

The focus of most US incarceration systems is to exploit criminals for their labor while receiving taxpayer money for housing those criminals.

Additionally, most states in the U.S. charge prison inmates for their incarceration. This policy is almost never referenced in TV or movies, but 42 states and DC have “pay for stay” incarceration legal frameworks, so a prisoner can get out of in jail or prison in the US and be in more debt than when they went in, because every day they’ve been charged for meals and rent and medical care.

It’s also extremely difficult to get a job as a convict in the US, so without any legal way to support themselves, no social support system and no viable social framework by which to rejoin a society, many US criminals feel forced to fall back into criminal activity just to pay for rent, food, and their children.