Boston Re-Entry Survey

描述（由申请人提供）：囚犯返回其社区对于城市贫困、家庭人口统计、公共卫生和犯罪学的研究越来越重要。现在每年大约有73万人从州和联邦监狱获释，绝大多数人回到犯罪率高的集中劣势社区。虽然与当代城市贫困的经济劣势、家庭不稳定和健康状况不佳密切相关，但以前被监禁的人往往无法利用调查或行政记录收集标准数据。拟议中的项目，波士顿重返社会调查，研究囚犯返回城市社区。在最一般的层面上，该项目旨在了解高度边缘化的人口与主流社会机构的联系，特别是与家庭、就业和住房的联系。累犯和犯罪参与是社会超然的重要标志，尽管我们同样感兴趣的是居住流动性和住房安全，与家庭和子女的关系，收入和求职，健康状况和使用卫生服务。我们将在释放前立即对囚犯进行一次小型纵向调查，然后在12个月内定期进行调查。访谈数据将与行政记录以及定性访谈和代理访谈相联系，以补充关于难以捉摸的高风险人群的信息。这些记录将提供关于就业和收入以及医疗保健利用的额外证据。该项目将作为对前囚犯进行大规模纵向研究的试点。这项研究的创新方法是以一年内保持高保留率为主要目标。高保留以前被监禁的研究参与者是必不可少的了解家庭，就业，住房和健康需求的这一关键，但难以达到的人口。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The return of prisoners to their communities has become increasingly important for research on urban poverty, family demography, public health and criminology. About 730,000 people are now released from state and federal prison each year, returning overwhelmingly to high-crime neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage. Although closely involved with the economic disadvantage, family instability, and poor health that characterizes contemporary urban poverty, the formerly-incarcerated are often inaccessible with standard data collections using surveys or administrative records. The proposed project, the Boston Reentry Survey, studies the return of prisoners to urban neighborhoods. At the most general level, this project aims to understand the connection of a highly marginal population to mainstream social institutions, in particular to family, employment, and housing. Recidivism and criminal involvement are important markers of social detachment, though we are equally interested in residential mobility and housing security, relations with family and children, earnings and job seeking, and health status and use of health services. We will conduct a small longitudinal survey with inmates interviewed immediately before release, then periodically over a 12 month period. Interview data will be linked to administrative records, as well as qualitative and proxy interviews, to supplement the information on an elusive and high-risk population. These records will provide additional evidence on employment and earnings, and health care utilization. The project will serve as a pilot for a large-scale longitudinal study of former prisoners. The study's innovative methodology is designed with the key objective of high rates of retention over the course of a year. High retention of formerly incarcerated study participants is essential to understanding the family, employment, housing, and health needs of this critical, but hard-to-reach population.