Inmates' Community Connectedness: Effect on Drug Use, Recidivism, and Adjustment

囚犯的社区联系：对吸毒、累犯和适应的影响

• 批准号: 9054663
• 负责人: Johanna Bailey Folk
• 金额: $ 3.28万
• 依托单位: GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-13 至 2018-04-12
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9054663
• 关键词: Alcohol or Other Drugs use; Attenuated; Communities; Community Integration; Crime; Criminal Justice; Drug usage; Economics; Educational workshop; Employment; Family; Feeling; Friends; Gold; Health; Imprisonment; Individual; Intervention; Jail; Justice; Learning; Life; Literature; Longitudinal Studies; Mediating; Mental Health; Neighborhoods; Outcome; Parents; Personal Satisfaction; Positioning Attribute; Prisoner; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Risk; Services; Societies; Staging; Substance Addiction; Symptoms; System; Testing; Time; Violence; anti social; antisocial behavior; base; experience; improved; novel; offender; programs; psychologic; psychopathic personality; recidivism; reduced substance abuse; response; social; treatment group

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Release from jail marks a key transition in the life of the inmate. On the one hand, the days, months, and years ahead represent the promise of a fresh start, the possibility of the gold-standard outcome of incarceration: rehabilitation. On the other hand, it also marks the threat of tremendous psychological, relational, and economic challenge as one seeks to re-integrate into the community, not to mention the statistical likelihood of recidivism. Practitioners and scholars alike have long-sought to explain who thrives and who recidivates after release from jail, noting that a predictive window on the matter could give way to possible interventions aimed at improving individual, familial, and community well-being. The proposed project aims to examine community connectedness as one such explanatory variable. Does the extent to which incarcerated offenders, on the brink of release from jail, feel connected to two distinct communities-the community at large and the criminal community-predict both desirable and undesirable outcomes in the years following release? In addition, how do feelings of connectedness to each community change over time? Lastly, can community connectedness be effectively targeted by an existing restorative justice based victim impact intervention? These questions are at the center of the proposed analyses. This project will draw upon two existing longitudinal studies of jail inmates (n = 508, and n = 222). Inmates' connectedness to the community at large and the criminal community is assessed shortly after their arrival in jail, prior to release, and up to four years post-release. First, pre-release community connectedness will be used to predict functioning (e.g., substance dependence, employment) up to four years after release. Next, normative and individual level changes in feelings of connectedness to the community at large and the criminal community will be analyzed to better understand the malleability of community connectedness. Individual factors such as participation in group-based interventions (e.g., 12-step programs) during incarceration and returning to neighborhoods with high contextual risk (e.g., violence) are expected to contribute to individual changes in community connectedness. Lastly, changes in feelings of connectedness to the community at large and the criminal community will be examined in response to an existing restorative justice based Impact of Crime (IOC) intervention in a local jail. Specifically, this project will test the hypothesis that the IOC intervention results in posiive post-release adjustment (e.g., community functioning) due to changes in feelings of connectedness to the community at large and the criminal community. Factors such as substance dependence and psychopathy will be explored as moderators of this relationship. Ultimately, these findings will fill a substantial gap in the scientific literature on community connectedness among offenders and can inform correctional treatment and reentry services aimed at decreasing antisocial behavior and increasing adaptive functioning in the community.

描述（由申请人提供）：从监狱释放标志着囚犯生活中的一个关键转变。一方面，未来的日子、月和年代表着一个新的开始的希望，代表着监禁的黄金标准结果的可能性：康复。另一方面，它也标志着巨大的心理，关系和经济挑战的威胁，因为一个人寻求重新融入社会，更不用说统计的累犯可能性。从业者和学者长期以来一直试图解释谁在出狱后茁壮成长，谁又重新犯罪，并指出，对这一问题的预测窗口可能会让位于旨在改善个人、家庭和社区福祉的可能干预措施。拟议的项目旨在研究社区连通性作为一个这样的解释变量。即将出狱的被监禁的罪犯感觉自己与两个不同的社区--普通社区和犯罪社区--有多大程度的联系，是否预示着他们在出狱后的几年里会有理想的和不理想的结果？此外，与每个社区的联系感如何随着时间的推移而变化？最后，现有的基于恢复性司法的受害者影响干预措施能否有效地针对社区连通性？这些问题是拟议分析的核心。该项目将借鉴两个现有的监狱囚犯（n = 508，和n = 222）的纵向研究。囚犯与整个社区和犯罪社区的联系在他们入狱后不久、释放前和释放后四年内进行评估。首先，发布前的社区连通性将用于预测功能（例如，物质依赖、就业），释放后最多四年。接下来，规范和个人层面的变化，在整个社区和犯罪社区的连通性的感觉将进行分析，以更好地了解社区连通性的可塑性。个人因素，如参与基于群体的干预措施（例如，12-步骤程序）在监禁期间和返回具有高背景风险的社区（例如，暴力），预计将有助于个人在社区连通性的变化。最后，在连接到整个社区和犯罪社区的感情的变化将在现有的恢复性司法为基础的犯罪的影响（IOC）在当地监狱的干预进行检查。具体而言，本项目将检验国际奥委会的干预导致积极的释放后调整的假设（例如，社区功能），因为与整个社区和犯罪社区的联系感发生了变化。物质依赖和精神病等因素将作为这种关系的调节因素进行探讨。最终，这些发现将填补有关罪犯之间社区联系的科学文献中的一个重大空白，并可以为旨在减少反社会行为和增加社区适应功能的矫正治疗和重返社会服务提供信息。