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

描述(由申请人提供)：出狱标志着囚犯生活中的一个关键转变。一方面，未来的几天、几个月和几年代表着一个新的开始的希望，意味着监禁的黄金标准结果的可能性：改过自新。另一方面，这也标志着巨大的心理、关系和经济挑战的威胁，因为一个人试图重新融入社会，更不用说从统计上讲再次犯罪的可能性。从业者和学者长期以来都在试图解释谁在出狱后茁壮成长，谁会再次犯罪，他们指出，对此事的预测性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。拟议的项目旨在将社区连通性作为这样的解释变量之一。即将出狱的被监禁罪犯在多大程度上感到与两个不同的社区--整个社区和犯罪社区--有联系，这是否预示着在获释后的几年里，既有可取的结果，也有不良的结果？此外，随着时间的推移，对每个社区的连接感是如何变化的？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。该项目将利用现有的两项对监狱囚犯的纵向研究(n=508和n=222)。囚犯在入狱后不久、获释前和获释后长达四年的时间里，对他们与整个社区和犯罪社区的联系进行了评估。首先，释放前的社区连接性将用于预测释放后长达四年的功能(例如，物质依赖、就业)。下一步，将分析对整个社区和犯罪社区的连接感在规范和个人层面上的变化，以更好地理解社区连接性的延展性。个人因素，如在监禁期间参与以群体为基础的干预(例如，12步方案)和返回具有高背景风险(例如，暴力)的社区，预计将有助于社区联系的个人变化。最后，将根据当地监狱现有的基于恢复性司法的犯罪影响干预措施，审查与整个社区和犯罪社区建立联系的感觉的变化。具体地说，该项目将检验这样一种假设，即国际奥委会的干预导致积极的释放后调整(例如，社区运作)，这是因为与整个社区和犯罪社区的连接感发生了变化。诸如物质依赖和精神变态等因素将被作为这种关系的调节因素来探索。最终，这些发现将填补关于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。

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.