As the California State Legislature wrestles with the possibility of paroling thousands of inmates from California prisons, a new study shows that in neighborhoods lacking a social network of long-time residents and active community organizations, crime tends to increase as the number of parolees rises. However, those neighborhoods with a strong social support system appear to do a much better job of bringing former prisoners back into society, and thus experience little if any increase in crime.
Because of the over $25 billion state budget deficit, the California Assembly and Senate are proposing cutting the state's prison population, which increased 73% between 1990 and 2006, three times faster than the California adult population. The Senate's plan is more sweeping than the Assembly's, but both would grant early parole to thousands of prisoners.
Coincidentally, University of California, Irvine, professor John Hipp has just published a paper in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology examining the impact of increases in parolees on the neighborhoods they move to after release from prison. His study, which looked at data for Sacramento neighborhoods between 2003 and 2006, showed that as parolees moved in, incidences of burglary, robbery, and assault often went up. When parolees with violent backgrounds moved in, murder rates went up as well.
What was significant though was Hipp's finding that this tendency toward increases in crime were moderated significantly in neighborhoods with established residents and community organizations that helped parolees reintegrate into society. A stronger social fabric seems to boost parolees' chances for success.
At a time when government and non-profit organizations are cutting services because of lack of funding, the legislature's plan to reduce prison population through increased paroles raises concerns for communities in light of Hipp's findings. Given that there will be continued pressure to reduce, or at least not increase, the state's prison population in coming years, communities need to find ways to strengthen programs that help former prisoners become contributing, law abiding citizens.
"Parolees' release leads to crime," UC Irvine, September 1, 2009
"California's Changing Prison Population," Public Policy Institute of California, August 2006
