Joan Petersilia

Reentry Reconsidered: A New Look at an Old Question

Reflecting unprecedented prison expansion, the scale of prisoner reentry has reached new heights. Although the movement of individuals from prison to community is not new, a focus on the phenomenon of reentry at this time sheds light on the consequences of Americas shifting sentencing policies, the changes in parole supervision, and the concentrated impact of removal and return of prisoners on disadvantaged communities. The profile of the current reentry cohort shows that prisoners are less prepared for reintegration and less connected to community-based social structures. Linkages between prisoner reentry and the related social policy domains of health policy, family and child welfare policy, workforce participation, civic participation, and racial disparities are examined to show the potential for more systematic reintegration policies. The article concludes with discussion of the implications of a reentry perspective for the development of new strategies for prisoner reintegration.

Prisoner Reentry: Public Safety and Reintegration Challenges

Changes in sentencing practices, coupled with a decrease in prison rehabilitation programs, have placed new demands on the U.S. parole system. Nearly 700,000 parolees are “doing time” on the streets. Most have been released to a parole system that provides few services and imposes conditions that almost guarantee failure. This article examines the state of parole in todays corrections environment—from indeterminate and determinate sentencing policies to investing in prisoner reentry programs. Specifically, the article analyzes the following collateral consequences involved with recycling parolees in and out of families and communities: community cohesion and social disorganization, work and economic well-being, family matters, mental and physical health, political alienation, and housing and homelessness. The future of parole is also discussed, and the author urges a rethinking of discretionary parole release.

Crime Victims with Developmental Disabilities A Review Essay

Rates of violence and abuse perpetrated on people with developmental disabilities (e.g., mental retardation, autism) appear significantly higher than for people without these disabilities. Few of these crimes get reported to police, and even fewer are prosecuted because officials hesitate to pursue cases that rely onthe testimony of a personwith a developmental disability. The author offers several conceptual models to explain their differential victimization risk, including routine activities theory, dependency-stress model, cultural stereotyping, and victim-learned compliance. This article summarizes the research evidence on crimes against children and adults with developmental disabilities. It is divided into four sections. The first section describes the nature and extent of crimes against individuals with developmental disabilities. The second reviews the literature onrisk factors associated with their victimization. The third discusses the manner in which justice agencies respond to these crimes. The final section enumerates what research and policy initiatives might address the problem.

Comparing Intensive and Regular Supervision for High-Risk Probationers: Early Results from an Experiment in California

This article reports on the six-month outcomes of a randomized experiment testing the effects of Intensive Supervision Programs (ISPs) in three California Counties (Contra Costa, Ventura, and Los Angeles). The findings show that ISP officers were able to intensify the monitoring of ISP offenders but were less successful at increasing services (e.g., counseling, employment) provided to clients. The program outcomes in Los Angeles and Contra Costa show that offenders on ISP were significantly more likely than their counterparts on regular probation to incur technical violations but were not more likely to incur new arrests or incarcerations. In Ventura, in which the control program was a different type of ISP, no differences were evident in any outcome measure. The article discusses the implications of these findings for the future of Intensive Supervision programs.

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: A Summary

This article summarizes a comprehensive examination of racial discrimination in the criminal justice systems of California, Michigan, and Texas. In each of those states, judges typically imposed heavier sentences on Hispanics and blacks than on whites convicted of comparable felonies and who had similar criminal records. Not only did these minorities receive harsher minimum sentences but they also served more time. It is chiefly at the sentencing stage where differential treatment is most pronounced. I discuss what could account for differences in sentencing, and suggest areas for future policy and research attention.

A Decade of Experimenting with Intermediate Sanctions: What Have We Learned?

JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1999.

Probation in the United States

Probation officers supervise two-thirds of all correctional clientele in the United States. But despite the unprecedented growth in probation populations over the past decade, probation budgets have not grown. The result is that U. S. probation services are underfunded relative to prisons and serious felons often go unsupervised, encouraging offender recidivism and reinforcing the publics view that probation is too lenient and lacking in credibility. Yet, there is much unrealized potential in probation. Recent research shows that probation programs, if properly designed and implemented, can reduce recidivism and drug use. Moreover, certain probation programs are judged by offenders to be more punitive than short prison terms, and the public seems increasingly willing to support intermediate sanctions for nonviolent offenders. Experimentation and evaluation are needed to determine whether adequately funded probation systems can protect society and rehabilitate offenders.

Evaluating Intensive Supervision Probation/Parole (ISP) for Drug Offenders

This article reports results from a recently completed randomized field experiment testing the effects of intensive supervision probation/parole (ISP) for drug-involved offenders. The ISP demonstration project, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, included five jurisdictions: Contra Costa, California; Seattle, Washington; Des Moines, Iowa; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Winchester, Virginia. Jurisdictions developed ISP programs tailored to their own contexts, using the general ISP model developed by Georgia and New Jersey in the early 1980s. Results show that ISP offenders were seen more often, submitted more often to drug testing, received more drug counseling, and had higher levels of employment than their counterparts on routine probation/parole supervision. With respect to 1-year recidivism outcomes, a higher proportion of ISP offenders had technical violations (primarily for drug use), but there was no difference between the two study groups in new criminal arrests. At the end of the 1-year follow-up, more ISP offenders had been placed in jail or prison (mostly for technical violations). This policy drove up system costs, which for ISP averaged just under

Criminal Career Research: A Review of Recent Evidence

8,000 per year per offender versus about

Conditions That Permit Intensive Supervision Programs to Survive

5,500 per year per offender for routine supervision. The article concludes with a discussion of how these results can be used to inform future ISP research and policy discussions.