A September 30 Baltimore Sun article reports that recidivism rates for Maryland inmates (those who return to prison within three years of release) has by almost 11% since 2000.

Secretary Gary D. Maynard, the top official at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, credited the prison system’s improved educational and job skills training programs, as well as stronger partnerships with state agencies that provide medical and mental health services to inmates and upon their release.

Maynard added that efforts to evaluate academic aspirations and substance abuse and behavioral treatment needs at the start of prison sentences also are paying off. He described that as “focusing on re-entry at reception.”

The rate at which ex-inmates are returned to prison or put on probation for new crimes within three years of release stood at 40.5 percent in 2012, an almost 3 percent drop from the previous year and almost 11 percent lower than in 2000, when the state’s recidivism rate stood at 51.4 percent, according to the latest data.

The article also notes that comparable national measures are not available as the federal Bureau of Justice has not examined national recidivism rates since the 1990s, although Virginia.