Research/Document Library

"Whys and Hows" of Measuring Jail Recidivism

At community meetings, budgetary hearings before county commissioners, and even family and social occasions, jail administrators are often asked how frequently inmates in their facilities cycle from release to return, and what, if anything, can be done to slow this revolving door. What seem like simple and logical questions actually prove difficult to answer as few jails track their recidivism rates or evaluate their programs with great precision. While most lack the research staff to undertake such analyses, the more fundamental reason is that they fail to see the relevance of calculating recidivism rates for highly mobile and complex jail populations. Running safe, secure, orderly, and humane institutions consumes the time of most jail administrators, and many would wonder the utility of measuring a statistic for which they exercise so little control over the outcome measure. This paper should provide both solace to jail administrators that this is indeed a difficult question to answer directly and forthrightly, but also a challenge that measuring recidivism rates for portions of jail populations is not only feasible but critical in helping a system manage scarce correctional resources and addressing overcrowding issues. Since 1998, the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department in Ludlow, Massachusetts has engaged in an on-going study in which recidivism rates are updated monthly on its sentenced population. It has used this information to identify population trends that affect jail overcrowding and has shared this information with other players in the criminal justice system to launch collaborative initiatives. In this paper, the methods of the study are described by using the recidivism data collected for sentenced inmates who left the Department’s correctional facilities and programs in 2004. It will also describe future plans to build on this study to conduct rigorous program evaluations and to extend some of this methodology to the Department’s pre-trial population.

Available online

http://www.urban.org/

Author(s)

Marty Lyman and Stefan LoBuglio

Date

June 2006

Publisher

Urban Institute