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3. Imprisonment and social objectives
 
  Article 15-Recidivism and imprisonment  
15.1 Recidivism (repeat offence)  
  The commission of an intentional crime by a person who has a record of conviction for an intentional crime committed earlier shall be classified as recidivism, or a repeat offender.  
15.2 Lifetime criminal incidence risk and index  
  When considering the investment cost in seeking to reduce the risk of recidivism (repeat offenders), the lifetime criminal incidence risk must be considered.  
  The cost of a person dedicating themselves to a life of crime within society is usually associated with a high economic cost after taking into account police resources, judicial/court resources, loss of property and other victim losses as well as long term detention costs.  
  Therefore, when balancing the common sense value in investing in a Correctional System that seeks to reduce the lifetime criminal incidence risk for most prisoners to as close to zero as possible, simplistic and short term economic arguments that deny the existence of the lifetime criminal incidence index have no merit.  
15.3 Investment in dedicated facilities are the reduction in cost of crime  
  The principle purpose of the design and function of the Corrections System is to assist society in the reduction in the overall rate of recidivism (repeat offenders).  
  Therefore, the investment made in dedicated correctional facilities are stated in this code shall always be considered in the context of reducing the cost of crime, not increasing overall costs.  
  In reducing the lifetime incidence risk of repeat offence, the Corrections System as defined by this code can never be compared by simplistic economic models of classic prison models.  
  It shall always be considered a false and misleading argument to compare classic prison models that may operate at low cost in the short term, but contribute substantially to the total lifetime cost of growing and promoting a class of repeat offenders.  
     
 
 

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