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Pages 1-7

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From page 1...
... Tracking the success of those released from prison can tell us whether the criminal legal system is fulfilling its mission and whether public investments are being put to effective use. The successful reintegration of those released from prison is also often used as an indicator of public safety.
From page 2...
... Committee members also brought expertise in criminal legal policy and reentry programming, and personal experience of incarceration and reentry. To respond to their charge, the committee examined the existing literature and relevant data sources on recidivism, desistance, and broader post-release outcomes.
From page 3...
... For example, pronounced differences exist between the relatively low recidivism rates of individuals released from prison for the first time and the significantly higher rates among those who have been in prison multiple times. In addition, the administrative data used to measure returns to prison typically include arrests as well as technical violations, which may not always reflect the commission of a new crime.
From page 4...
... Research has also documented the persistent and varied barriers facing those attempting to reintegrate in domains beyond criminal legal system involvement. Individuals released from prison today face numerous collateral consequences (impediments beyond conviction and incarceration themselves)
From page 5...
... But individuals released from prison return to lives and communities that are more complex than avoiding criminal legal system intervention. In addition, the criminal legal system's core aims go beyond punishment to include public safety and rehabilitation -- neither of which is captured in full by an exclusive focus on recidivism.
From page 6...
... For example, an individual may prioritize success in certain domains and thus have a sense of well-being despite setbacks in other domains. Neither recidivism nor desistance encompasses this broader conception of success, and researchers and practitioners in the criminal legal space lack adequate methods of measuring it, though promising models have been validated in other disciplines (see Chapter 4 for examples)
From page 7...
... A persistent problem facing the evaluation of post-release success is the lack of shared definitions and methodologies. In the case of recidivism, one reentry program's recidivism rate may refer to rearrests and technical violations of the rules of community supervision while another program's rate may measure only reincarceration.


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