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Abstract
This brief analyzes data from 145 men released from Illinois prisons (2002-2003) and tracked for three years afterwards through personal interviews and reincarceration records, as part of the study Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry. Three years after release, 59 percent were reincarcerated—up from 34 percent at 16 months out. Those successful at avoiding reincarceration were older first-time releases with no illegal income or family violence prior to prison, and those who found employment and housing after release, reintegrated into new, less disorganized neighborhoods, avoided antisocial peers, and had a physical/mental health condition (which may have restricted activity outside the home).
Introduction
Every year, more than 600,000 offenders are released from prisons nationwide. Most are men and many have extensive criminal backgrounds. However difficult their chances in life before incarceration, they are even more difficult after release. Many will struggle to find employment and housing, avoid substance use and criminal activity, and reintegrate into their communities.
Yet despite great odds, some former prisoners—nearly a third according to Bureau of Justice Statistics data—successfully avoid rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration for at least three years following their release from prison. Who are these men? What helped them to succeed? And, how can knowledge of their life stories help others in similar predicaments?
These questions are the focus of this brief, which documents the lives of 145 men released from Illinois prisons from 2002 to 2003 and tracked for three years afterwards—through personal interviews and official reincarceration records as part of the multistate longitudinal study Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry (see sidebar, next page). The sample may be small and state-specific, but the challenges the men report facing are not new; rather, they parallel those found in other states, such as Maryland, Ohio, and Texas. The difference in the Returning Home Illinois study is the extensive length of time over which men were followed: reincarceration records cover three years after prison while interviews were conducted 30 days before release and 2, 7, and 16 months after release. This longitudinal accounting of prisoners’ reentry experiences allows us to examine, for the first time, what factors distinguish individuals who succeed three years out of prison from those who do not.
Organization of the Brief
This research brief uses graphs to tell the stories of former prisoners in Illinois. Some show percentages of men experiencing different issues, such as employment success, substance use relapse, and involvement in family relationships. Others show scores across all men on scales measuring domains such as self-esteem and control over life, family relationship quality, and reintegration difficulties. Wherever interview data are available—before release or 2, 7, or 16 months after release—those numbers are presented. Graph by graph, we tell a story of Illinois prisoners’ experiences just before and up to three years after their release from incarceration.
We also highlight throughout the brief factors we found to be predictive of reentry success based on the results of multivariate regression analyses predicting who successfully avoided reincarceration three years out. We focus on distinguishing the characteristics and experiences of men who avoided reincarceration, both for the first 16 months out and for all three years after release, from those of men who did not. Lastly, we identify several policy implications of the study.
(End of excerpt. The entire report is available in PDF format.)
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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