In 2004, the Urban Institute convened a Reentry Roundtable to explore the links between prisoner reentry and community policing in the context of enhancing public safety. As part of that project, researchers conducted a scan of police reentry partnerships to identify innovative reentry strategies underway across the country. The Returning Home study also examines the relationship between recidivism and other factors, such as criminal and employment histories, substance use, and family relationships. In addition, researchers at the Urban Institute edited a collected volume on the topic that looks broadly at public safety and other dimensions of prisoner reentry.
Recent Findings from the Urban Institute on Public Safety and Reentry
- Most returning prisoners have extensive criminal histories. Most Returning Home respondents (between 80 and 87 percent) had at least one prior conviction, and at least two-thirds had previously served time in prison (see supporting text 1, 2, 3, 4). In Massachusetts, all but 1 percent of prisoners released from the Department of Correction in 2002 had been previously incarcerated in a Massachusetts state or county facility. Between 1996 and 2003, almost 80 percent of the individuals who were admitted and released to the Philadelphia Prison System had been previously incarcerated there.
- A substantial number of released prisoners are reconvicted or rearrested for new crimes, many within the first year after release. Illinois Returning Home findings show that one-fifth (22 percent) of released prisoners were reconvicted for a new crime within 11 months of release, and nearly one-third (31 percent) were returned to prison on a new sentence or parole revocation within 13 months of release. Maryland Returning Home findings show that within 6 months of release, roughly one-third (32 percent) had been rearrested for at least one new crime, 10 percent had been reconvicted for a new crime, and 16 percent had been reconfined to prison or jail for a new crime conviction or technical violation.
- Those with substance use histories and who engage in substance use after release are at a high risk to recidivate. Returning Home respondents who were rearrested after release had more extensive criminal and substance use histories and were more likely to have used drugs before prison as well as after release (see supporting text 1, 2).
- High crime areas are not always the same areas as those to which the highest numbers of prisoners are returning. Many neighborhoods that receive high concentrations of returning prisoners have more moderate crime rates than the regional average. In Baltimore, for example, three of the six communities that received the highest number of returning prisoners in 2001 had Part I crime rates lower than the citywide average. In Cleveland, three of the five communities that received the highest number of returning prisoners in 2001 had Part I crime rates lower than the citywide average. Most of the areas in Virginia to which the largest numbers of prisoners return experience over a third fewer crimes per 1,000 residents than the areas with the highest concentrations of crime. Still, some communities with high rates of returning prisoners also have high crime rates. In Chicago, all but one of the six neighborhoods that receive the highest concentrations of returning prisoners have crime rates higher than the citywide average.
