Spotlight Announcement

9/20/2005: New Report Fuels Focus on Parole

A report released this month by the Urban Institute has focused new attention on the impact of postprison supervision. The report, entitled "Does Parole Work?," analyzes rearrest data from 15 states and concludes that, for most individuals, postprison supervision did not significantly reduce the likelihood of rearrest within a two-year period after their release from state prison. A press release and response from the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA), however, argues that the study does not accurately reflect the efficacy of current supervision programs nationwide.

To create the report, the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization, conducted a study comparing rearrest data from 15 states for individuals released from prison without supervision ("unconditional releasees"), those released into postprison supervision following the completion of their prison sentence ("mandatory parolees"), and those released into postprison supervison by a discretionary screening authority, such as a parole board ("discretionary parolees"). After controlling for other variables, the study found that mandatory parolees were just as likely to be rearrested within two years of release as unconditional releasees-both at a rate of 61 percent. Furthermore, rearrests for discretionary parolees were only slightly less likely, at 57 percent, than for unconditional releasees. The study did, however, indicate that supervision can reduce the likelihood of rearrest for certain types of parolees. According to the report, "those who appear to benefit most from supervision are low-risk, low-level offenders, who account for small shares of the overall release cohort."

The report concludes with a list of factors that may contribute to the inefficacy of postrelease supervision programs:

• Parole supervision is, in fact, quite minimal in most cases;
• Parole officers are often located far from the neighborhoods where parolees reside;
• In most states, responses to violations are often inconsistent and inappropriate to the seriousness of the infraction;
• In recent years, the parole function has shifted from a service orientation to a surveillance-oriented, control-based strategy centered on monitoring behavior; and,
• It is possible that the traditional approach to parole supervision, which focuses on an individual's risks or needs rather than strengths, is conceptually ill-suited to reduce recidivism among released prisoners.

In response to these findings, APPA's response questioned the methodology of the study. Pointing out that the study used data from 1994, the organization suggested that the study does not accurately reflect the current state of postprison supervision programs. Additionally, APPA noted that the study analyzes aggregate data from 15 states, and suggested both that analyzing the data in the aggregate obscures significant differences between states, and that data must be collected from every state to give an accurate perception of nationwide trends. Nevertheless, APPA suggested that the report "points to what many parole experts have recognized for some time ¹Ÿø that parole must balance treatment, surveillance, and enforcement to work with offenders, their families, and community providers to more effectively reduce recidivism."

The Urban Institute report acknowledged some of the issues raised in APPA's response, noting, "although we were able to control for state-level effects, we did not have specific information on differences in state sentencing and parole practices and revocation policies¹Ÿ·The aggregate nature of our analysis may bury significant differences at the state level relative to the outcomes associated with parole." Both the Urban Institute and APPA agreed that postrelease superivision practices require further study.

Click here to see "Does Parole Work?," the new report on postrelease supervision from the Urban Institute.

Click here to see the response from the American Probation and Parole Assocation.

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