Supervision Intensity on Parole Failures: The Role of Home Visits

• In Event: Community Supervision

Abstract

Over three-quarters of a million Americans are on parole every day, yet little is known about how community supervision practices shape case outcomes. This study adds to the literature examining the intensity of supervision conditions on parole failures by considering the role of home visits in five major parole supervision events: general supervision violations, specific violations - drug test failures, technical violation arrests, new felony crime arrests, and revocations. Longitudinal data from three state agencies were pooled to examine a cohort of 28,284 parolees who completed supervision between 2011 and 2013. Cox survival regression models show the frequency of home visits decreases the hazard rate of all supervision outcomes. These findings suggest that the impacts of supervision intensity are complex and unlikely to be captured with only measures of supervision level assignments, which are proxies for parolee risk and offense behavior. In addition, it seems that the context in which parolees are monitored closely may be important. Other predictors of parole failure included parolee demographic characteristics, criminal histories, proceeding prison sentence, and supervision activities. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Authors

• Tammy Meredith, Applied Research Services, Inc.

• Shila René Hawk, Applied Research Services, Inc.