NCJ Number
161093
Journal
Forum on Corrections Research Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: January 1996 Pages: 15-17
Date Published
January 1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This study investigated whether offender participation in prison work programs had a positive impact on institutional adjustment and postrelease recidivism, based on a sample of 269 federally sentenced male offenders who worked for Canada's correctional industry program (CORCAN) for at least 6 uninterrupted months while incarcerated.
Abstract
The average age of the sample was 36 years, but about half of the offenders were younger than 31 years; 66 percent were single, 75 percent were serving their first Federal sentence (2 years or longer), and 75 percent were serving sentences of less than 5 years. Approximately half of the sample had not been released since incarceration. The other half had been returned to custody after their conditional release had been revoked. Most offenders worked for CORCAN in either fabrication, industries, or agriculture. The Statistical Information on Recidivism Scale was used to determine the sample's risk of reoffending. As expected, about 75 percent of offenders granted full parole were assessed as low-risk offenders. In contrast, nearly half of offenders on statutory release were high-risk offenders. While risk level was not related to the timing of offender release, the type of release was significantly related to the amount of time served by the offender. The sample's overall return to Federal custody rate was 42 percent, within an average follow-up period of 1.5 years. In addition, findings reconfirmed that risk assessments predicted conditional release outcome and indicated that uninterrupted participation in CORCAN prison industry programs immediately prior to release had a positive impact on offender postrelease recidivism, particularly on full parole release offenders. 2 footnotes and 2 tables