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When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry
01 Jan 2003-
TL;DR: In this paper, a profile of returning prisoners is presented, along with a discussion of the changing nature of Parole Supervision and Services, and the role of the victim's role in prisoner reentry.
Abstract: Preface 1. Introduction and Overview 2. Who's Coming Home? A Profile of Returning Prisoners 3. The Origins and Evolution of Modern Parole 4. The Changing Nature of Parole Supervision and Services 5. How We Help: Preparing Inmates for Release 6. How We Hinder: Legal and Practical Barriers to Reintegration 7. Revolving Door Justice: Inmate Release and Recidivism 8. The Victim's Role in Prisoner Reentry 9. What to Do? Reforming Parole and Reentry Practices 10. Conclusions: When Punitive Policies Backfire Afterword
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TL;DR: Manza and Uggen as mentioned in this paper provide an overview and analysis of the unique practice of felon disenfranchisement in the United States today, focusing in particular on the political impact of disenfranchising large numbers of non-incarcerated felons.
Abstract: As levels of criminal punishment have risen in the United States, more and more citizens have been disenfranchised because of a felony conviction. This paper provides an overview and analysis of the unique practice of felon disenfranchisement in the United States today. We focus in particular on the political impact of disenfranchising large numbers of nonincarcerated felons—those who have served their entire sentences and those living in their home communities while completing a term of probation or parole. Our discussion is organized around three key issues relating to felon disenfranchisement: (1) the historical and legal origins of this practice; (2) its practical political impact on recent elections; and, (3) the racial dynamics that color both the history and contemporary effects of felon disenfranchisement in the United States. We discuss how felon disenfranchisement laws in many states appear to be out of step with both international practices and public opinion in the United States and consider contemporary policy proposals.Jeff Manza is the coauthor, with Clem Brooks, of Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions. With Jeff Manza, Christopher Uggen is coauthor of the forthcoming Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. Research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (No. 9819015) and from the Individual Project Fellowship Program of the Open Society Institute. The authors are indebted to the editors and anonymous reviewers for thoughtful comments and suggestions and to Angela Behrens and Sara Wakefield for research assistance.
85 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a 4-item helper/wounded healer orientation scale was developed to determine if this orientation is related to psychological well-being and/or acts as a sort of buffer against criminality.
Abstract: This study builds upon theory and research concerning the helper therapy principle, mutual-help groups, wounded healers, and retroflexive reformation to examine the possible benefits of helping others in a sample of 228 formerly incarcerated persons in prisoner reintegration programs. A 4-item helper/wounded healer orientation scale was developed. OLS regression analysis was used to determine if this orientation is related to psychological well-being and/or acts as a sort of buffer against criminality. The results indicate that the helper/wounded healer orientation has a positive relationship with higher self-esteem and greater satisfaction with life, and a negative relationship with having a criminal attitude and the forecast of rearrest. The finding that helping helps the helper suggests that this principle should be recognized for its potential in facilitating the recovery and reintegration of formerly incarcerated persons.
85 citations
Cites background from "When Prisoners Come Home: Parole an..."
...It is generally believed that formerly incarcerated persons are stigmatized and discriminated against (e.g., LeBel, 2006; Petersilia, 2003; Travis, 2005)....
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...” It is generally believed that formerly incarcerated persons are stigmatized and discriminated against (e.g., LeBel, 2006; Petersilia, 2003; Travis, 2005)....
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...Being under some form of community supervision may suppress the tendency to help others as criminal justice agencies may prohibit fraternization among former prisoners (see, e.g., Irwin, 1980; Petersilia, 2003)....
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...This common supervision restriction (Petersilia, 2003, p. 83) fits the differential association notion that if former prisoners are allowed to associate, the more seasoned criminals will somehow teach or contaminate the ones with less criminal attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of personal characteristics, their criminal histories, and the social organization of supervision on parole violations and found that personal characteristics and offense histories are predictive of parole violations.
Abstract: Parolee deviance has emerged as a central issue in policy debates about crime and punishment in American society as well as in scholarship on “mass incarceration.” Although the prevailing approach to studying parolees conceives of parole violations as outcomes of individual propensities toward criminal behavior (i.e., criminogenic risk), we consider how indicators of individual risk and characteristics of formal social control systems combine to account for reported parole violations. Using data on California parolees, we examine the effects of parolees’ personal characteristics, their criminal histories, and the social organization of supervision on parole violations. We advance the notion of a “supervision regime”—a legal and organizational structure that shapes the detection and reporting of parolee deviance. Three components of a supervision regime are explored: 1) the intensity of supervision, 2) the capacity of the regime to detect parolee deviance, and 3) the tolerance of parole officials for parolee deviance. We find that personal characteristics and offense histories are predictive of parole violations. However, we also find that introducing supervision factors reduces the effects of offense history variables on violation risk, suggesting that the violation risks of serious, violent, and sexual offenders are partially explainable through the heightened supervision to which they are subject. In addition, we find that supervision intensity and tolerance are generally predictive of violation risk. Capacity effects are present but weak. We conclude with a discussion of how the supervision regimes concept illuminates the gap between macro- and micro-analyses of social control.
85 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the types of needs identified at intake from a sample of 546 female parolees and found that if a parolee was employed, had stable living arrangements, and was assessed as needing and receiving some type of drug and/or alcohol program intervention, she was less likely to fail on parole.
Abstract: A number of parolees are returning to the community with programming needs that may not have been addressed during their incarceration; these unmet needs may subsequently affect their successful reintegration into the community. Although there is an increasing female parole population, there has been a paucity of research concerning female parolees. The current study examines the types of needs identified at intake from a sample of 546 female parolees. The results revealed the following. First, if a parolee was employed, had stable living arrangements, and was assessed as needing and receiving some type of drug and/or alcohol program intervention, she was less likely to fail on parole. Second, many of these women were underassessed for having needs for drug and alcohol treatment as well as employment, housing, and other assistance. This underassessment may be because of an increasing emphasis on parole supervision (i.e., custody) rather than treatment in parole agencies.
85 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a risk score that determines the custody level of one's prison assignment if incarcerated or level of community supervision if on probation or parole, and they also identify needs that must be addressed in order to meet basic needs, change offender behavior, or assure humane prison adjustment.
Abstract: With women offenders representing only seven percent of the U.S. prison population, prevailing correctional policies continue to focus on the risk and needs of male offenders. However, in recent years, the female prison populations have increased more rapidly than male populations (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005). Such rapid growth draws strong attention to existing practices of assessing and classifying women offenders (Van Voorhis, 2004). Current classification procedures involve the use of statistically-derived assessments that predict an offender’s likelihood of recidivism or an inmate’s likelihood of serious misconducts. They provide a risk score that determines the custody level of one’s prison assignment if incarcerated or level of community supervision if on probation or parole. Some assessments also identify needs that must be addressed in order to meet basic needs, change offender behavior, or assure humane prison adjustment (Clements, McKee, & Jones, 1984). Since these assessments are so important to the lives of offenders, it is unfortunate that most were originally developed for men and then applied to women with little regard for their
85 citations