Reintegration of Formerly Incarcerated Young Adults

在过去的二十年里，美国监狱和看守所里被关押的人数急剧上升。因此，每年有70多万囚犯被释放。年轻、低技能、非裔美国男性被监禁的比例过高，而且后果严重。对于那些想要了解来自贫困城市社区的年轻人的经历的人来说，刑事司法系统现在可以说和教育系统或劳动力市场一样重要。由于监禁将个人与社会网络隔离，并中断学业和就业，它有可能推迟或阻止年轻人的关键生活转变，包括完成学业、第一份全职工作和离开童年家庭。这个项目调查了两个关键的社会背景——社区和家庭——在以前被监禁的年轻人向成年过渡的过程中所起的作用。我们的第一个目标是调查哪些曾经被监禁的年轻人在出狱后或多或少地进入了弱势社区和家庭。我们将重点关注社会人口特征，如种族和教育，以及与社会支持的联系，以在监狱的时间和从家到监狱的距离来衡量。我们的第二个目标是检查邻里特征（如失业和贫困）和家庭特征（如机构住房）对成年过渡的关键结果的影响，包括就业、上学、药物使用和进一步的刑事司法系统参与。为了实现这些目标，我们将收集和分析2003年和2009年从密歇根州监狱获得假释的18至25岁的一群人的新的管理数据。更广泛的影响(A)通过更好地了解社区和家庭环境，我们可以开始制定项目机构，以满足参与刑事司法系统的年轻人的发展需求。我们将撰写政策简报，将我们的发现传达给政策制定者、从业者和公众。(B)该项目将通过收集新的和独特的数据对社会科学基础设施作出重大贡献。我们预计我们的数据集，我们将存档供其他研究人员使用，将会对多个学科的学者感兴趣。(C)我们将与来自代表性不足群体的学生合作并指导他们担任研究助理，包括本科生和研究生，包括女性、非洲裔美国人、拉丁裔和第一代大学生。(D)该项目利用并加强了大学研究人员和密歇根州惩教部门之间独特而富有成效的伙伴关系。国家机构拥有大量的行政数据，但很少有资源将它们用于有效的研究。

Reintegration of Formerly Incarcerated Young AdultsSES - 1060708David Harding, Jeff MorenoffUniversity of MichiganAbstractOver the last two decades, the number of individuals incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States has risen dramatically. As a result, over 700,000 prisoners are released each year. Incarceration is disproportionately experienced by young, low skill, African-American males, and has important consequences. For those seeking to understand the experiences of young adults from poor urban communities, the criminal justice system is arguably now as important as the education system or the labor market. Because incarceration separates individuals from social networks and interrupts schooling and employment, it has the potential to delay or preclude key life transitions for young adults, including school completion, first full-time employment, and leaving the childhood household.This project investigates the role of two key social contexts - neighborhoods and households - in the transition to adulthood among formerly incarcerated young people. Our first goal is to investigate which formerly incarcerated young adults end up in more or less disadvantaged neighborhoods and households after their release from prison. We will focus on sociodemographic characteristics such as race and education as well as connections to social support as measured by time in prison and distance from home to prison. Our second goal is to examine the effects of neighborhood characteristics like unemployment and poverty and household characteristics like institutional housing on outcomes critical to the transition to adulthood, including employment, schooling, substance use, and further criminal justice system involvement. To accomplish these goals, we will collect and analyze new administrative data on a cohort of individuals age 18 to 25 released on parole from Michigan prisons in 2003 and followed through 2009. Broader Impacts (A) Through a better understanding of neighborhoods and household contexts, we can begin to develop programs institutions that meet the developmental needs of young adults involved in the criminal justice system. We will write policy briefs that will communicate our findings to policymakers, practitioners, and the public. (B) This project will make a significant contribution to social science infrastructure by collecting new and unique data. We anticipate that our dataset, which we will be archived for use by other researchers, will be of interest to scholars in multiple disciplines. (C) We will work with and mentor students from underrepresented groups as research assistants, both undergraduate and graduate students, including women, African Americans, Latinos, and first-generation college students. (D) This project both capitalizes on and enhances a unique and productive partnership between university researchers and a state agency, the Michigan Department of Corrections. State agencies hold significant quantities of administrative data but rarely have the resources to put them to effective research use.