The Effects of Post-Release Supervision on Recidivism: A Matched Survival Analysis Approach

• In Event: Improving Offender Outcomes in Correctional Populations 3

Abstract

As a result of the policy shift in Florida within the past 30 years to a determinate punishment structure, only one-third of ex-prisoners receive post-prison supervision. The other two-thirds of former prisoners do not receive oversight or restrictions on their activities. There is a dearth of quasi-experimental research that examines the effectiveness in post-release supervision on employment and recidivism outcomes. This study assesses the impact of post-prison supervision on the reentry outcomes of employment, rearrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment using a cohort of over 250,000 inmates released between 2002 and 2011. To this end, we employ a combination of matching and survival analysis procedures to establish comparability between groups and estimate the timing to recidivism.

Authors

• Catie Clark, Florida State University

• David Ensley, Florida Department of Corrections

• Philip Coltharp, Florida Department of Corrections

• William Bales, Florida State University

• Samuel Scaggs, Florida State University