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Abstract
In 2001, researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., launched a pilot study in the state of Maryland for a four-state, longitudinal research project examining prisoner reentry. The first stage of the pilot involved self-administered surveys with 324 prisoners in the 30 to 90 days prior to their expected release. These surveys presented many research challenges, including designing a self-administered instrument that would be accessible to the prison population, developing appropriate sampling and recruiting methods, and conducting research in a prison setting. This paper describes the research procedures that were employed to obtain this baseline data and presents some preliminary findings from our survey of soon-to-be-released prisoners. The results presented include descriptive information on prisoner demographics, criminal histories, substance use, and family relationships, as well as correlation analyses of prisoner attitudes and expectations for life after release. Implications of these preliminary findings and recommendations to researchers interested in conducting similar research are also discussed.
Introduction
Most research on prisoners or former prisoners has focused primarily on studying recidivism, or the failure to desist from crime. Recidivism is usually identified through rearrest, reconviction, or reincarceration (see Blumstein, Cohen, Roth, & Visher, 1986; Langan & Levin, 2002; Wolfgang, Thornberry, & Figlio, 1987). Recidivism studies typically concentrate on identifying the factors that predict the reoccurrence of criminal activity. Such research generally does not examine the process by which an individual continues to be involved in crime or desists from crime, nor does it focus on a former prisoner's reintegration into society; rather, it focuses on one narrow outcome (e.g., rearrest or not).
Recently, scholars have recognized that the study of prisoner reentry and reintegration is similar to research on criminal desistance, which requires a broader focus on a longitudinal process, rather than on a discrete outcome (Bushway, Piquero, Broidy, Cauffman, & Mazerolle, 2001; Laub & Sampson, 2001; Maruna, 2001; Shover, 1996; Visher & Travis, 2003; Zamble & Quinsey, 1997). Such a research approach would permit a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges of prisoner reentry and pathways to subsequent success or failure, which is critically important to reducing the costs associated with high rates of reincarceration.
In 2001, a team of researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., launched a longitudinal study to provide systematic knowledge about the process of reintegration using a large sample of prisoners across neighborhoods, communities, and states. This project, called Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, aims to answer two broad research questions: what is the experience of those being released from prison and returning home, and what factors influence a released prisoner's propensity to reoffend? Returning Home is a multistate, three-year study of the challenges facing prisoners being released from prison and returning home along five dimensions: (1) the individual trajectory of postprison adjustment; (2) the family context both before prison and after prisoners return; (3) the individual's relationships with peers both in prison and postrelease; (4) the community context to which prisoners return; and (5) the state-level context of reentry regulations and policies and other social and economic influences. Returning Home is being implemented in two phases. Phase I is a pilot study in Maryland. Phase II will involve implementation of the full research study in three additional states: Illinois, Ohio, and Texas.
This paper reports on the implementation of the initial phase of the Returning Home research design, a survey of soon-to-be-released prisoners, in the pilot state of Maryland. This paper has three objectives: (1) to describe the research procedures that were developed to obtain baseline data from a sample of soonto-be-released prisoners; (2) to report preliminary findings from the prerelease surveys; and (3) to discuss future plans for this project and make recommendations to researchers interested in conducting similar research.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
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