The Boston Reentry Study: Analysis and Preparation of Public Use Data

NSF 1627693布鲁斯西部哈佛大学-在美国监禁率创历史新高的时代，从监狱向获释囚犯社区的过渡对集中劣势社区的人口和贫困动态产生了深远的影响。尽管有大量研究研究监禁的影响，但相对较少的研究详细分析了离开监狱和进入社区的过程。在此背景下，该项目通过提供创新的新数据分析和创建波士顿再入研究(BRS)的公开可用数据文件来扩展先前的研究，BRS是一项对122名新释放到波士顿地区的马萨诸塞州囚犯进行的纵向研究，在释放监狱后的一年中，通过4波跟踪，产生了94%的无与伦比的应答率。因此，目前的项目将提供一个独特的数据集，包括丰富的定量和定性信息，用于分析当代大规模监禁条件下新释放囚犯的社区回返情况。目前的项目--包括新的分析和数据传播--将极大地扩大研究的影响范围，通过为监狱后过渡就业计划、为入狱后立即从事大部分护理工作的家庭提供社会支持以及减少累犯率的政策辩论提供信息，确定监狱获释后一年的关键脆弱性。这项研究还将通过让对贫困和监禁感兴趣的学生参与数据分析和论文编写，在他们的学术发展方面发挥重要作用。目前的项目将扩大对高边缘人口与主流社会机构联系的理解，特别是能够对家庭关系、就业和累犯进行新的分析。该项目包括两个主要部分。首先，新的数据分析将利用BRS数据的各种独特功能。收入数据每月可用，包括工资、公共援助、家庭支持和非法收入的衡量标准。关于家庭和儿童的数据包括所有家庭支助来源，包括获释囚犯的父母和所有儿童，从而能够完整地绘制多个配偶生育情况的地图。对累犯的分析将结合定量的犯罪记录信息和定性的描述，包括重新监禁面谈，从而对重新拘留的社会过程产生新的理解，特别是对那些重新上瘾或违反社区监督条件的人。第二，BRS的档案工作将涉及准备一套公共使用的数据集、包括犯罪记录和其他敏感数据在内的限制使用数据文件以及包括面谈记录或录音在内的定性材料。这些数据的传播将使人们能够对监禁后的社会融合过程进行各种各样的分析，促进将统计分析与对记录和转录的访谈进行解释性分析相结合的混合方法研究，并将为致力于监禁和贫穷问题的学者社区作出独特的公益贡献。

NSF 1627693Bruce Western Harvard UniversityIn an era of historically high US incarceration rates, the transition from prison to the community of released prisoners has had far-reaching effects on the population and poverty dynamics of neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage. Despite a large body of research studying the effects of incarceration, relatively few studies have analyzed in detail the process of leaving prison and entering a community. In this context, this project extends prior research by offering innovative new analyses of data and the creation of publicly available data files from the Boston Reentry Study (BRS), a longitudinal study of 122 Massachusetts state prisoners newly-released to the Boston area that yielded an unparalleled response rate of 94 percent through 4 waves of follow-up in the year after prison release. The current project will thus provide a unique data set, including rich quantitative and qualitative information for the analysis of community return for a sample of newly-released prisoners under contemporary conditions of mass incarceration. The current project---including new analysis and data dissemination---will greatly expand the scope of the study's influence by informing policy debates on programs for transitional employment after prison, social supports for families that do much of the caring work immediately after incarceration, and for recidivism reduction, identifying key vulnerabilities in the year after prison release. The research will also play an important role in the academic development of students with interests in poverty and incarceration by involving them in the analysis of data and preparation of papers. The current project will broaden understanding of the connection of a highly marginal population to mainstream social institutions, allowing in particular new analyses of family relationships, employment, and recidivism. The project comprises two main parts. First, new data analysis will capitalize on a variety of unique features of the BRS data. Income data are available monthly and include measures of wages, public assistance, support from families and illegal earnings. Data on families and children includes all sources of family support including the parents of released prisoners, and all children, allowing a complete mapping of multiple partner fertility. The analysis of recidivism will combine quantitative criminal record information with qualitative accounts including re-incarceration interviews yielding a new understanding of the social process of returning to custody, particularly for those who are relapsing to addiction or violating the conditions of community supervision. Second, archival work on the BRS will involve the preparation of a public-use data set, restricted-use data files including criminal records and other sensitive data, and qualitative materials including interview transcripts or audio tapes. The dissemination of these data will allow a wide variety of analyses of the process of social integration after incarceration, will promote mixed methods research that combines statistical analysis with the interpretative analysis of recorded and transcribed interviews and will contribute a unique public good to the community of scholars working on the problems of incarceration and poverty.