The Limits of Recidivism Measuring Success After Prison (2022) / Chapter Skim
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4 Measuring Success Beyond Recidivism
4 Measuring Success Beyond Recidivism
Pages 139-192
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From page 139... ...
Such a conceptual shift in measuring success would then include domains that are referred to in other literatures as the social determinants of health, such as an individual's economic stability, health status, housing conditions and living environment, educational needs, and the broader social and community context of which they are a part (See Box 4-1)
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From page 140... ...
. People that have been in prison need to be the ones making decisions for their programming." SOURCE: See Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session (July 27–28, 2021)
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From page 141... ...
? Without understanding how community contextual factors shape an individual's return from prison, policy makers, service providers, and communities miss opportunities to increase the likelihood of success following release from prison.
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And that criminal justice involvement is intricately connected to this. The barriers to success can feel insurmount able to some people and those barriers are real" (Valverde, 2021)
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From page 143... ...
Domains discussed include physical and mental health status, housing status, employment, educational attainment, civic and community engagement, and social relationships with family, peers, and other social supports. The chapter concludes with a discussion of research needs to improve the measurement of post-release outcomes for criminal legal system-involved individuals, with attention to needs for shared data collection standards and data sharing across policy domains.
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From page 144... ...
, correctional programming is often narrowly focused. For example, reentry programs commonly focus solely on job training or substance use, or are only situated in the criminal legal system without considering how other social support or "safety net" systems act as important agents of success following prison release (Hawks et al., 2021)
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From page 145... ...
. The science of measuring success following release has, by and large, not taken into account the realities of the communities to which people return.
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. Logic models that predict that reentry programming will influence intermediate outcomes, such as employment, stable housing, and substance use, which will then facilitate desistance and reintegration have not been validated (Lattimore, 2020; Mulhausen, 2015)
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From page 147... ...
need more intensive counseling, more assistance in finding housing, in finding jobs, in dealing with discrimination." (Strauss, 2021) SOURCE: See Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session (July 27, 28, 2021)
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From page 148... ...
. Evaluating how well institutions and organizations act as facilitators of success following release is essential, especially evaluating how the systems that provide health care, food, transportation, education, and employment support the needs of recently released individuals.
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From page 149... ...
To start, recording the residential address (as is available in administrative data) or zip code of returning individuals within intervention studies and program evaluations will enable a broader understanding of how a person's community and structural factors affect the potentiality of success following release (Chambers et al., 2018; Vilda et al., 2021)
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From page 150... ...
structural barriers for historically marginalized populations released from corrections requires that researchers recognize how race and ethnicity are being measured and operationalized in studies. In quantitative studies, self-identified race is used as a confounder, implying that a person's race is associated with the probability of success, as opposed to self-identified race being seen as an indirect proxy of embedded inequalities and a root cause for health inequities or inequities in success following release.
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From page 151... ...
. The need for multidimensional, holistic measures of success following release from prison leads us to a measure of overall well-being as an important indicator of individual success.
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From page 152... ...
Mental Health Depression, PHQ-9 or PHQ-2; Can be ascertained with International Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Primary Care Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Screen and pharmacy records in electronic health records or administrative claims Substance Addiction Severity Index Can be ascertained with ICD10 codes Avoid using urine drug screen as Use Disorder Subjective self-report item: Compared to and pharmacy records in electronic singular measure of relapse 1 year ago (or other time frame)
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From page 153... ...
During the past 12 months, that is since {CURRENT MONTH} of {LAST YEAR}, {have you/they} seen or talked to a mental health professional such as a psychologist, psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse or clinical social worker about {your/his/her} health? continued 153
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Proposed items are suggestions Job Retention Item: Is this a job you wish to keep? Seasonality of employment and would need to be validated.
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If not employed, job search activity Educational Item: Do you desire additional education? If no HS diploma, enrollment in GED/ Proposed items are suggestions Attainment Item: Have you asked for assistance in TASC prep course and would need to be validated.
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Degree of connection to others for social support Receiving peer support Involvement in peer support groups Civic Engagement INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ITEMS INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ITEMS Proposed items are suggestions Item: Individual-level political efficacy Item: Political participation (turnout) , and would need to be validated.
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rates Neighborhood Item: Do you feel safe in your neighborhood? Residential Zip code Zip code data enables Context Item: Is public transportation available in measurement of neighborhood your neighborhood?
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From page 158... ...
activity within broad offense categories over a follow-up period Administrative data item: Deceleration in rate of convictions in time interval Administrative data item: De-escalation in the severity level of convictions Administrative data item: Cessation or absence of criminal convictions over a follow-up period SOURCE: Table derived from analysis and discussion of the committee as a whole. See "Notes" column for references to specific existing instruments and direct sources.
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From page 159... ...
To help conceptualize and visualize the scale, an image of a ladder is used. Current life satisfaction responses of greater than or equal to 7 and future life optimism responses of greater than or equal to 8 are classified as a thriving life evaluation.
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From page 160... ...
These surveys enable measurement of individual factors that contribute to success following release, including physical and mental health, but also the social environments that directly influence individual well-being. Already underway is a multisite randomized controlled trial of a sixweek mental health intervention, the 5-Key Model for Reentry, where the primary outcome is individual-level psychological well-being.
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From page 161... ...
As discussed in Chapter 3, the measurement of desistance tracks positive outcomes that indicate reduced involvement in offending over time, ultimately including the complete cessation of criminal behavior. A 2021 National Institute of Justice report, Desistance-Focused Criminal Justice Practice, identifies three basic approaches to understanding and measuring desistance: (1)
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From page 162... ...
. A smaller number of studies have examined "subjective desistance," based on measures of whether people believe they are engaging in more, less, or about the same amount of criminal activity relative to an earlier baseline period or a peer reference group (Massoglia and Uggen, 2007; 2010)
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From page 163... ...
. These outcomes are referred to as intermediate because they indicate positive changes that may reflect progress toward ceasing criminal behavior and eventually lead to the complete abandonment of criminal behavior, although individuals may not have completely ceased offending at the time of measurement (Burrowes et al., 2013)
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From page 164... ...
, more accurate than self-reported data on specific health conditions. However, recognizing the challenges associated with accessing health records and that people released from prison often have limited health care access, several national health surveys include self-reported measures of specific physical health and mental health conditions that can be used in research, thereby providing a benchmark of study participants' responses with national rates (see Table 4-1)
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From page 165... ...
Survey questions from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Survey of Prison Inmates and Survey of Inmates in Local Jails can also be used in this same way. Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Given the high prevalence of mental health conditions and substance use disorder among criminal legal system-involved individuals, using specific mental health and substance use indicators that are short and widely used in non-incarcerated populations can complement measures of well-being and can be used in evaluating the success of specific interventions.
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From page 166... ...
. Engagement in Health Care Success following release from incarceration can also be described by how and when individuals engage the health care system, especially for those with physical and mental health conditions.
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From page 167... ...
One exception is a multi-site evaluation of housing programs for high-risk individuals, which found that the timing of achieving residential stability in the first weeks and months following release was important in achieving longer-term housing stability and preventing convictions and readmission to prison for new crimes (Lutze, Rosky, and Hamilton, 2014)
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From page 168... ...
. Identifying the role employment plays in successful transitions begins with uncovering a broader range of employment-related measures as indicators of success following release from prison.
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From page 169... ...
Secondary sector occupations and employment are characterized by low wages, poor work conditions, and, most importantly, job instability, whereas the primary sector refers to employment with high wages, employment stability and security, and strong social relationships with others in the work force (Doeringer and Piore, 1971)
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From page 170... ...
. In a three-year study of GED completion for people released from prisons in New Jersey, about six in ten non-GED participants were rearrested once released, compared with about half of GED participants (Zgoba, Haugebrook, and Jenkins, 2008)
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and Jai Diamond of the New York City Criminal Justice Agency cited "education, a strong voice, and a strong mind" as her core needs to validate herself and "set the tone for the suc cess I've found today" (Diamond, 2021)
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Social Relationships: Children, Families, Peer Support Strong social relationships are an important component of a successful transition from prison to the community or after other criminal legal system involvement. For example, family support for criminal legal systeminvolved individuals, though it is largely invisible, can be critical to an individual's success.
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From page 173... ...
. Qualitative studies have made important contributions to our understanding of the role of relationships in criminal behavior and desistance, but more attention is needed to understand the ways in which families and other social relationships and related social capital help individuals succeed, including within the domains of healthcare, education, and employment.
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From page 174... ...
Importantly, most studies have not examined thoroughly how the specific time course following release affects success, especially whether the first few hours, days, and weeks following release are essential to success and how individuals thrive over the life course. The measurement of success regarding health conditions following release may need to be undertaken in a less regimented way than is typical of other research studies and evaluation efforts (such as with surveys scheduled one month, three months, etc., following release)
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From page 175... ...
Thus, while longitudinal data collection is much preferred over cross-sectional data collection, it may still be inadequate to observe important points for success following release without more flexible methodologies. Further, employing a life-course perspective in defining success following release from prison enables a more complete understanding concerning which individual- and community-level factors, especially structural factors, support thriving and what their intergenerational impacts are on families and communities.
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From page 176... ...
This would be a new area of research that could enhance our understanding of success as it is experienced by individuals during the months and years following release from prison. This chapter has repeatedly mentioned the lack of sufficient administrative and statistical data to measure various forms of success experienced by people returning from prison.
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From page 177... ...
This cross-sector approach may offer an effective and efficient mechanism to improve success following release by highlighting system deficiencies and strengths within communities. Although some organizations now utilize integrated crosssector data for evaluation, these data have not been extensively leveraged to explore the comprehensive network of public sector interactions for the justice-involved population.
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From page 178... ...
The ability to measure success following release from prison, and especially the ability to measure the community contexts to which people return, is hindered by data silos and restrictive data-sharing practices across criminal legal institutions. Few police departments routinely share information disaggregated by census tracts or by even smaller areas, like the block or longitude/latitude coordinates of stops and arrests, though many departments use such data in the practice of predictive policing.
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From page 179... ...
Measuring desistance and reintegration through the narrow lens of recontact with the criminal legal system is likely to undervalue the impacts of reentry programs and miss indicators of incremental progress, including changes in housing stability, job retention, or educational advancement, as indicated by participants in the committee's listening session. Research establishing relationships between non-criminal justice outcomes and reductions in criminal behavior could give policy makers the confidence to focus on those outcomes as a way to influence criminal behavior.
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From page 180... ...
Looking beyond recidivism as a measure of successful reintegration. The Prison Journal 100, 4, 488–509.
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From page 181... ...
Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evalu ating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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. Opioid over dose death following criminal justice involvement: Linking statewide corrections and hospital databases to detect individuals at highest risk.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison, Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evalu ating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Committee on Evaluating Success Among People Released from Prison Meeting #2: Public Information Gathering Session. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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