Another Look At the Effectiveness of Parole Supervision

Abstract

This is a quasi-experimental study of the effectiveness of postrelease supervision in reducing recidivism among criminal offenders. Five-year follow-up information on three groups of inmates released from prisons in a northeastern state was examined. The three offender groups were inmates released on parole, on conditional release, and by mandatory expiration of sentence. The major findings of the study were the following: (1) The nature of the criterion variable used to assess success/failure in the community will affect the substantive con clusions of community follow-up research; the manner in which technical violations of parole and conditional release are handled is especially important; (2) the effect of supervision is dependent to a certain extent on the characteristics of offenders; and (3) overall, the effects of postrelease supervision on recidivism reduction are small. Implications for future follow-up research efforts are discussed.