Time Served and Release Performance: A Research Note

Abstract

In this note, the association between length of time served in prison and release outcome is examined for a sample of 1546 federal adult male prisoners with control exercised for base expectancy (salient factor) score. All forms of release (parole/mandatory releaselexpiration of sentence) are included with a two year followup period utilized for each case. No substantial association between time served and release outcome is observable from the data for this sample. However, the percentage of cases with favorable outcome generally does appear to decrease slightly as one moves within risk categories from the groups serving shorter to longer periods of time.