Assessing Recidivism Rates From Linked County Court Records

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Courts and the Law: Research, Challenges, and Innovations

Abstract

The recidivism rate is a fundamental concern in the criminal justice system in evaluating how effective programs and policies are in discouraging individuals from re-offending. To assess the recidivism rate, we algorithmically linked individual court records from Clayton County, GA from 1987 to 2022.Court records for individuals were linked based on their name, age, filing and disposition dates, length and type of sentences, and information about related cases in the case management system. When we examine the differences in the recidivism rate based on age, we find that there are minimal differences between age cohorts within the first year after release and this persists for 18-24yo, 25-34yo, and 35-44yo groups for five years post-release. Similarly, when the sentence length for the original crime is less than 48 months there is little variation in the first year after release and only a marginal increase in the recidivism rate with shorter sentences despite population size differences. Evaluating recidivism through linked court records enables a person-centric view of this process and allows for the linkage to civil actions (such as evictions, traffic fines, etc.) that could provide a fuller picture of the issues that individuals face while pre- and post-release from incarceration.

Authors

• Adam Pah, Georgia State University

• Kat Albrecht, Georgia State University