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

布鲁斯西哈佛大学在美国历史上监禁率很高的时代，从监狱到释放囚犯社区的转变对集中弱势社区的人口和贫困动态产生了深远的影响。尽管有大量的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，本项目通过提供创新的数据分析和波士顿再入研究（BRS）中公开可用数据文件的创建，扩展了先前的研究。波士顿再入研究（BRS）是一项对122名马萨诸塞州新释放到波士顿地区的囚犯进行的纵向研究，通过在监狱释放后一年的四波随访，获得了94%的无与伦比的回复率。因此，目前的项目将提供一套独特的数据，包括丰富的定量和定性资料，用于分析在当代大规模监禁条件下新释放囚犯样本的社区回返情况。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，为有关监狱后过渡性就业方案的政策辩论提供信息，为在监禁后立即承担大部分照顾工作的家庭提供社会支持，以及减少累犯，确定监狱释放后一年的主要脆弱性。这项研究还将使对贫困和监禁感兴趣的学生参与数据分析和论文编写，从而在他们的学术发展中发挥重要作用。目前的项目将扩大对高度边缘人口与主流社会机构之间联系的理解，特别是允许对家庭关系、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数据的各种独特特征。收入数据每月提供，包括工资、公共援助、家庭支助和非法收入等指标。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配偶生育的地图。对累犯的分析将把定量的犯罪记录资料与定性的叙述结合起来，包括再监禁访谈，从而对重返拘留所的社会过程有新的认识，特别是对那些重新染上毒瘾或违反社区监督条件的人。第二，BRS的档案工作将包括编制公共使用数据集、限制使用的数据文件，包括犯罪记录和其他敏感数据，以及定性材料，包括采访记录或录音带。这些数据的传播将允许对监禁后的社会融合过程进行各种各样的分析，将促进混合方法的研究，将统计分析与记录和转录的访谈的解释分析相结合，并将为研究监禁和贫困问题的学者社区提供独特的公共利益。

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.