Re-Entry and Recidivism

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Re-Entry and Recidivism

• Libby Deschenes, Ph.D.
• Cal State University, Long Beach
• Barbara Owen, Ph.D. and
• Jason CrowCal State University, Fresno

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Increasing Burden on CJS
                                              
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics Correctional
Surveys
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Drug Offenders Increasing Percentage of Prison
Releases
                                 
Source http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/reentry/relea
ses.htm
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Increases in Recidivism
Source http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/reentry/recid
ivism.htmrecidivism
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Challenges of Re-entry

• Serious social and medical problems
• 75 history drug/alcohol abuse
• 16 report a mental condition
• Less than one-third received treatment
• Few have marketable skills or sufficient literacy
  to become gainfully employed
• 33 unemployed at arrest
• 60 have GED or HS diploma
• 25 in vocational training programs
• 33 participated education programs

Source J. Petersilia (2005) Hard Time
Ex-Offenders Returning Home after Prison
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Current Research

• Study funded by NIJ using archived data
• Examines recidivism patterns during 3 years post
  release
• Evaluates measures of offense specialization
• How do incarceration and recidivism of males and
  females differ?
• What factors will be important for prisoner
  re-entry?

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Research Design

• Secondary data
• Collected by Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Three year follow-up of inmates released in 1994
• Discharged from 15 states
• Weighted data for all analyses
• 248,528 males
• 23,585 females

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Data Sources for Recidivism Measures

• Official FBI and state criminal histories
• Rearrest
• Reconviction
• Resentenced to prison
• Official criminal history and state DOC
• Return to prison with or without new sentence

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Results

• Sample characteristics by gender
• Demographics
• Criminal history
• Recidivism
• Patterns of male and female offending

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Comparing Demographicsby Gender

• Females represent 8.7 of total sample
• Black women (50.5) more represented than White
  women (48.5), in direct contrast with males
  (Black, 48.3 White, 50.6)
• Hispanic women underrepresented in comparison to
  males (19.6 versus 25)
• Women released later in life than men

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Type of Incarceration Offense
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Comparing Sentencesby Gender

• Higher proportion of women (79) incarcerated for
  property or drug offense than men (65)
• Women sentences shorter than malesby 10.3
  months, averaging 49.6 months
• Women served a mean time of 14.2 months, 6.7
  months less than the men
• Women served 30.2 of original sentence, men
  served 35.7 of original sentence

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Comparing Criminal Historyby Gender

• Similar prior arrest rates (92.8 and 93.2,
  respectively)
• Males more likely to have at least one prior
  conviction (96.9 to 89.1)
• Women less likely to have a prior prison sentence
  (37.3 vs. 44.2)

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Recidivism for Male and Female Prisoners
REARR Rearrested (recidivated) RECON
Reconvicted RENPS Returned to prison with a new
sentence RPWOW Returned to prison with or
without a new sentence
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Violent Offense Category by Recidivism Status by
Gender
REARR Rearrested (recidivated) RECON
Reconvicted RENPS Returned to prison with a new
sentence RPWOW Returned to prison with or
without a new sentence
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Property Offense Category by Recidivism Status by
Gender
REARR Rearrested (recidivated) RECON
Reconvicted RENPS Returned to prison with a new
sentence RPWOW Returned to prison with or
without a new sentence
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Drug Offense Category by Recidivism Status by
Gender
REARR Rearrested (recidivated) RECON
Reconvicted RENPS Returned to prison with a new
sentence RPWOW Returned to prison with or
without a new sentence
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Public-order Offense Category by Recidivism
Status by Gender
REARR Rearrested (recidivated) RECON
Reconvicted RENPS Returned to prison with a new
sentence RPWOW Returned to prison with or
without a new sentence
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Other Offense Category by Recidivism Status by
Gender
REARR Rearrested (recidivated) RECON
Reconvicted RENPS Returned to prison with a new
sentence RPWOW Returned to prison with or
without a new sentence
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Rearrest Rates of Female and All Prisoners by
Time after Release
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Reconviction of Female and All Prisoners by Time
after Release
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Return to Prison of Female and All Prisoners by
Time after Release
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Time to Rearrest for Females
Variables in the Equation black
273.3hispanic 22.6sentence 144.6age
rlse 647.1 priors 2259.9time serve
36.0violent first 41.8 drug first 63.1
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Type of Rearrest for Females
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Criminal Career Patternsfor Females
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Career Offense Typesfor Females
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Preliminary Findings on Female Recidivism and
Specialization

• Three strongest predictors
• Number of prior arrests
• Age at release
• African-American race
• Drug and property offenders more likely than
  violent offenders to be re-arrested
• High proportion of career offenses same type
• Over half of property offenders repeat
• About one third for violent or drug offenses

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Policy Implications

• Male violent offenders pose greatest risk
• Need for community reinvestment initiativesto
  reverse socioeconomic risk factors
• Female property and drug offenders highest rates
  of recidivism
• Community-based treatment may be more appropriate
  than prison
• Re-entry should focus on drug treatment, stable
  housing, wraparound services

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California Prisons versus Other States
Source Fischer (2005) UCI Center for Evidence
Based Corrections Bulletin 1(1)
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California Recidivism Has Different Policy
Implications

• Fischers analysis controls for background
• Rearrest not higher in CA compared to FL
• Reconviction lower in CA compared to NY
• High rates of technical violations partially
  explained by fact that nearly all CA prisoners
  report to parole agents
• Petersilia (2005) recommends reinstating
  discretionary parole
• Austin, Hardyman Irwin (2002) suggest reducing
  time on parole to 6 months and require parole
  board guidelines based on risk and need