Bridging Over Troubled Water: A Macro-Level Examination of Community Social Capital and Reentry Success

• In Event: The Role of Community in the Reentry Process

Abstract

An average of 590,000 prisoners have been released every year since 1990, with millions more under some other type of supervision (BJS). Yet, we still have holes in our understanding of the reentry process for reentering citizens and their communities. Previous studies of the importance of social capital for recidivism examined either the importance of individual connections for reducing recidivism or the importance of the local community of the neighborhood into which they reenter. Notably missing from this research is the broader city/county context that provides the services, jobs, support, and broader social capital. The communities into which individuals reenter are a key factor in their success or failure, and social capital determines the structure and density of the networks into which they try to integrate. The current study addresses this gap by assessing the relationship of two types of social capital –bridging and bonding– with individual recidivism using a nationwide sample of counties. Specifically, multilevel models are assessed that simultaneously assess the importance of census tract and county level measures of social capital on recidivism.

Author

• Elizabeth E. Brault, Louisiana State University